Re: Implementing branch attributes in git config

On Tue, 9 May 2006, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

If we really change the syntax, I would oppose the ".". I realize I may have used it myself, and I think it would be good _internally_, but I think the syntax would be

	[branch "Any+String"]

which looks a lot more readable. Ie just a space (or, perhaps, "any combination of spaces and tabs").

Same here. If we break old parsers anyway, the "." has no redeeming value. You'd use it when _scripting_ stuff, but not anywhere else.

So in both cases, the above would turn into the _variable_ called "branch.Any+String/and-dashes.<key>" internally, and things that used "git repo-config" would say it that way, but the config file format should be human-readable.

We already do that human-readability thing. We say

	[core]
		name = Linus  Torvalds
		email = random

but we turn it internally into

	core.name  ->	"Linus Torvalds"
	core.email ->	"random"

and that's also the format you use for "git repo-config". Similarly, having

	[branch "master"]
		remote = git://....

in the config file should - for exactly the same reasons - be turned _internally_ into the association

	branch.master.remote    ->    git://...

and for exactly the same reason you'd just use

	git repo-config set branch.master.remote "git://..."

on the command line.

IOW, we _already_ do not match the internal and command line with the actal human-readable syntax.

			Linus