Re: [PATCH] docs: clarify meaning of core.commentString=auto

From: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Date: Mar 17, 2025, 21:34 UTC
Message-ID: <Z9iVVD988M4XUyYO@nand.local>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqv7s78l8t.fsf@gitster.g>

On Mon, Mar 17, 2025 at 01:17:54PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Oswald Buddenhagen <oswald.buddenhagen@gmx.de> writes:
>
> > -If set to "auto", `git-commit` would select a character that is not
> > -the beginning character of any line in existing commit messages.
>
> This is so far in the past but I suspect this was deliberately left
> vague so that we can add (or subtract) the set of possible letters
> to use.
>
> > +If set to "auto", `git-commit` will select the first character
> > +from the set "#;@!$%^&|:" that does not appear at the beginning
> > +of any line in the prepared commit message prior to editing.
>
> So I am not sure if this is an improvement.

I had a similar thought while reading. The vague wording of the existing text gives us freedom to change that set of characters in the code without the possibility of the documentation becoming stale.

That's pretty academic, though, so I don't have a strong feeling against this portion of the patch, but I do vaguely prefer the existing wording.

Thanks, Taylor