Re: [PATCH v5] git-send-email: use ! to indicate relative path to command

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: May 12, 2021, 00:35 UTC
Message-ID: <YJsi1jbtNFDRKXmq@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <YJsas0d4XPsYYpI7@camp.crustytoothpaste.net>

On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 12:00:51AM +0000, brian m. carlson wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> > +	specify a sendmail-like program instead, either by a full
> > +	path-name or by prefixing the program name with `!`.  The
> > +	program must support the `-i` option.  Default value can be
> > +	specified by the `sendemail.smtpServer` configuration option;
> > +	the built-in default is to search for `sendmail` in `/usr/sbin`,
> > +	`/usr/lib` and $PATH if such program is available, falling back
> > +	to `localhost` otherwise.
> 
> Elsewhere we use the ! syntax we invoke the shell, and I would suggest
> that we do the same here.  That means we'll get PATH functionality by
> default and we'll let people do a modicum of scripting if they like.

Thanks for bringing that up. I agree it makes things more consistent with other uses of "!", and certainly it's more flexible. It does introduce an inconsistency with the absolute-path form, as I mentioned in https://lore.kernel.org/git/YJsiKDNbKclFU00b@coredump.intra.peff.net/.

I don't know if that's a show-stopper or not. Certainly the documentation can explain the difference, but it's nice to keep the rules as simple as possible.

(My gut feeling is that consistency with other "!" places is more important than consistency with the absolute-path form).

-Peff