From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2017 08:34:40 GMT
Subject: Re: Updated to v2.14.2 on macOS; git add --patch broken
Message-ID: <xmqqefqkiq8v.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20171003071622.el6zqibfyrjc2mra@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

> I agree it's not quite the same thing, and I agree the problem was made
> much worse by 4c7f1819b.  But I still think color.ui=always is
> inherently a foot-gun, and in either case it is the user that sets it
> that is harmed (and they are the ones who have the power to fix it).

Yeah, but it is inherently a foot-gun only for those who write
scripts around porcelain commands, which are expected to honor
color.ui=always.  If you write a script using the plumbing commands
because you did not want to get broken by color.ui=always, and then
your script gets broken because plumbing commands you relied on
suddenly start paying attention to color.ui---is that the user's
fault who used color.ui?  

The end-users have the power to work the breakage around by not
using "always".  The script writers have the power to work the
breakage around with "--no-color".  But these are workarounds that
shouldn't have been needed in the first place, no?