Re: [PATCH 1/2] user-manual: Simplify the user configuration.

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Jan 24, 2009, 13:42 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0901241438370.13232@racer>
In-Reply-To: <94a0d4530901240021u65adeff8pb6995ef707bc1f68@mail.gmail.com>

Hi,

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009, Felipe Contreras wrote:

Show 43 quoted lines

> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Hannu Koivisto <azure@iki.fi> wrote:
> > Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 6:17 PM, Hannu Koivisto <azure@iki.fi> wrote:
> >>> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
> >>>
> >>>> This brings back my previous question: where is the home directory in
> >>>> a Windows system?
> >>>
> >>> It's where %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% points to.
> >>
> >> I thought it was something like that. Do we want something like that
> >> in the manual, or should we assume Windows users know that?
> >
> > I should have added that Unix programs (i.e. Cygwin programs and
> > even some native ports) probably use %HOME% which may be different
> > from %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%.  I recall that if you haven't
> > explicitly set up HOME in Windows environment, Cygwin sets it up
> > magically from passwd or falls back to %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%.  I
> > have no idea if msysgit respects %HOME% if it is set or always uses
> > %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% or something completely different (user
> > profile, most likely).
> >
> > It certainly may be that "home directory" is a foreign concept to
> > some Windows users.  Some might know it as a user profile or a
> > personal folder (just guessing, I'm pretty isolated from less
> > experienced Windows users), even though user profile is a separate
> > concept from "home directory" (note that there is %USERPROFILE%
> > which by default is the same as %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% at least in
> > XP).
> >
> > In any case, what Cygwin git does should be expected by Cygwin
> > users.  If msysgit wanted to be a really native Windows application
> > and store the configuration where Microsoft thinks it should be
> > stored, it probably shouldn't store the config under "home
> > directory" to begin with (I'm guessing that's what it does) but
> > under %USERPROFILE\Application Data\Git (...FILE\Local
> > Settings\... in case non-roaming storage is wanted).  And in that
> > case the manual might be misleading for msysgit users.  See
> > e.g. <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995853.aspx>.
> 
> Isn't that enough argument to stop assuming the user knows where is
> the "home directory"?

Why does it appear as if we always have to bend over for Windows? That is really frustrating.

In any case, the only thing the user would need to know the location of $HOME for is for .gitconfig. And for Windows users I suggest using the dialog in git gui (for the variables that are editable there), which should cover most of what the user needs. For everything else, they should use "git config".

Because if you really start with explaining where the home can be on Windows, you would also have to cover why "%USERPROFILE%" does not work in Git bash. And before you know what is happening, you have a big ass Windows chapter in the user manual that revolves around anything except Git.

Ciao, Dscho