Re: [PATCH] doc git: multivar configuration parameters append to existing values
- From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
- Date
- Jun 16, 2014, 21:10 UTC
- Message-ID
- <xmqqfvj4pnl1.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <708AD97F308249A1B61D9348AFE59182@PhilipOakley>
"Philip Oakley" <philipoakley@iee.org> writes:
Show 8 quoted lines
>> ---once >> the reader >> understands that Git reads all configuration varilables of the >> same name and the code paths that *use* one of them pick the one >> defined the last, > It's this step that's a concern. We shouldn't be forcing the reader to > implicitly grok that, especially as we don't actually say it elsewhere > (in the regular documentation).
I think that is what I was driving at. If we do not tell the reader that, perhaps we should and everything else will fall as natural consequence of that understanding.
Show 8 quoted lines
>> * The last sentence added, i.e. "insteadof"-style, will not be >> understood by any reader other than those who tried to use "-c" >> on remote.*.url variables and does not belong here. A better >> way/place to give that information is needed. > > I just wanted to indicate that some multivars do have get-out [override] > config parameters, though we aren't consistent about their names yet, > while giving a clue as to a typical name style.
I think those who tried "-c remote.*.url" would be helped better by having a see-also in the documentation on "remote.*.url" that refers them to "insteadOf" noting that "remote.*.url" is a multi-value variable and appending different definition will not make "the last one wins". After all "-c" is merely *one* way to append.
The next person who gets confused may say "I added remote.origin.url at the end of my $repo/.git/config expecting that the value to be used"; the answer would be the same "the variable is multi-valued; adding a new value is not the right way to futz with it. You either need to replace, or if you do not want to replace, use insteadOf".
That is the second reason why the mention of insteadOf does not belong to the description of "-c var=value".
Perhaps something like this as a starting point?
Documentation/config.txt | 11 +++++++++++ 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt index 1d718bd..357cc02 100644 --- a/Documentation/config.txt +++ b/Documentation/config.txt @@ -2108,6 +2108,13 @@ remote.pushdefault:: remote.<name>.url:: The URL of a remote repository. See linkgit:git-fetch[1] or linkgit:git-push[1]. ++ +Note that this variable is multi-valued (e.g. "git push there" with +multiple `remote.there.url` will push to all the named repositories), +and does not follow the "last-one-survives" rule. When you want to +temporarily redirect a push to somewhere else, see `url.<base>.insteadOf`; +you cannot use "git -c remote.<name>.url=<temporary URL> push", because +you will be pushing to both the configured place and the temporary place. remote.<name>.pushurl:: The push URL of a remote repository. See linkgit:git-push[1]. @@ -2419,6 +2426,10 @@ url.<base>.insteadOf:: the best alternative for the particular user, even for a never-before-seen repository on the site. When more than one insteadOf strings match a given URL, the longest match is used. ++ +When you want to redirect a push to `$URL` (e.g. `site.xz:myrepo`) +temporarily to somewhere else (e.g. `othersite.xz:myrepo`), you can +use "git -c url.othersite.xz:myrepo.insteadOf=site.xz:myrepo push ..." url.<base>.pushInsteadOf:: Any URL that starts with this value will not be pushed to;