git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: What shall we do with the GECOS field again?

From
Matthias Urlichs <smurf@smurf.noris.de>
Date
Sep 19, 2005, 14:47 UTC
Message-ID
<pan.2005.09.19.14.47.51.811409@smurf.noris.de>
In-Reply-To
<432ECB92.5000505@gmail.com>
Hi, A Large Angry SCM wrote:
> Saying that the user's name is first and a particular punctuation 
> character SHALL be the standard cut point and everyone not happy with 
> the results should explicitly set the Git environment variables is the 
> wrong approach.
I disagree. Standard add-user tools use the gecos field in one of two ways:
- fullname
- fullname,and,some,other,cruft

Sure, many organizations bake their own, but I'd argue that the majority doesn't.

> AND/OR to include 
> the what Git thinks the user's name name might be in the commit message
> template they're editing (like the file list).

I think that's a good idea, as long as people are told how to change it (i.e., an envvar -- NOT by editing the file).

-- 
Matthias Urlichs   |   {M:U} IT Design @ m-u-it.de   |  smurf@smurf.noris.de
Disclaimer: The quote was selected randomly. Really. | http://smurf.noris.de
 - -
On those occasions when the angel managed to get his mind into the
twentieth century, it always gravitated to 1950.
        -- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)
Previous: A Large Angry SCMNext: A Large Angry SCM
Message 5 of 20 in “What shall we do with the GECOS field again?”
  1. Petr BaudisSep 19, 2005
  2. Kevin O'RiordanSep 19, 2005
  3. Matthias UrlichsSep 19, 2005
  4. A Large Angry SCMSep 19, 2005
  5. Matthias UrlichsSep 19, 2005
  6. A Large Angry SCMSep 19, 2005
  7. Petr BaudisSep 19, 2005
  8. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2005
  9. Petr BaudisSep 19, 2005
  10. Linus TorvaldsSep 19, 2005
  11. Junio C HamanoSep 19, 2005
  12. Linus TorvaldsSep 19, 2005
  13. Ryan AndersonSep 20, 2005
  14. Linus TorvaldsSep 20, 2005
  15. Junio C HamanoSep 20, 2005
  16. Nikolai WeibullSep 19, 2005
  17. Nikolai WeibullSep 19, 2005
  18. Junio C HamanoSep 20, 2005
  19. Junio C HamanoSep 20, 2005
  20. Nikolai WeibullSep 20, 2005

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.