Re: [PATCH 2/2] ident: make the useConfigOnly error messages more informative

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 30, 2016, 22:27 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqlh4zr492.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <1459366183-15451-2-git-send-email-redneb@gmx.com>

Marios Titas <redneb@gmx.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

> -			    && !(ident_config_given & IDENT_NAME_GIVEN))
> -				die("user.useConfigOnly set but no name given");
> +			    && !(ident_config_given & IDENT_NAME_GIVEN)) {
> +				fputs(env_hint, stderr);
> +				die("no name was given and auto-detection is disabled

Hmph. I do not think that this is making the message "more informative".

When a user hits this error, the old message allowed the user to easily see how to toggle the "disable auto-detection" bit off to let the code continue by telling the name of the configuration, but the updated message hides that name, making it harder for the user to disable the disabling of auto-detection.

I can buy the argument that this change helps the user by making the message "less" informative, though. By discouraging the users from toggling the user.useConfigOnly bit off, it indirectly makes the other option to work around this error condition, i.e. giving a name more explicitly, more appetizing.