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Re: [PATCH v2 4/5] builtin/config: special-case retrieving colors without a key

From
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date
Sep 15, 2025, 17:19 UTC
Message-ID
<xmqqo6rbhbv8.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To
<20250915-pks-config-color-v2-4-e4290bd8d13c@pks.im>
Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:
Show 37 quoted lines
> Our documentation for git-config(1) has a section where it explains how
> to parse and use colors as Git would configure them. In order to get the
> ANSI color escape sequence to reset the colors to normal we recommend
> the following command:
>
>     $ git config get --type=color --default="reset" ""
>
> This command is not supposed to parse any configuration keys. Instead,
> it is expected to parse the "reset" default value and turn it into a
> proper ANSI color escape sequence.
>
> It was reported though [1] that this command doesn't work:
>
>     $ git config get --type=color --default="reset" ""
>     error: key does not contain a section:
>
> This error was introduced in 4e51389000 (builtin/config: introduce "get"
> subcommand, 2024-05-06), where we introduced the "get" subcommand to
> retrieve configuration values. The preimage of that commit used `git
> config --get-color "" "reset"` instead, which still works.
>
> This use case is really quite specific to parsing colors, as it wouldn't
> make sense to give git-config(1) a default value and an empty config key
> only to return that default value unmodified. But with `--type=color` we
> don't return the value directly; we instead parse the value into an ANSI
> escape sequence.
>
> As such, we can easily special-case this one use case:
>
>     - If the provided config key is empty;
>
>     - the user is asking for a color code and the user; and
>
>     - the user has provided a default value,
>
> then we call `get_color()` directly. Do so to make the documented
> command work as expected.

Yup, the UI is still ugly because this is not config at all X-<. Only because we lack "I have a color name. Please parse it into ANSI sequence" command, we are abusing the "git config" command and using "--default" as "here is that color name I am asking about" argument. Even if we were to add a more intuitive "parse --color" command, the (ab)use of "git config" for this purpose has been with us for the many years and cannot be dropped--and under that constraints, I agree that this patch is the best we could do.

Thanks for working on this.
Previous: Patrick SteinhardtNext: Patrick Steinhardt
Message 17 of 36 in “builtin/config: bug fixes for "get" subcommand with "--type=color"”
  1. 0/5 builtin/config: bug fixes for "get" subcommand with "--type=color"Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 11, 2025
  2. 1/5 t1300: write test expectations in the test's bodyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 11, 2025
  3. Kristoffer HaugsbakkSep 11, 2025
  4. Patrick SteinhardtSep 15, 2025
  5. 2/5 t1300: small style fixupsPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 11, 2025
  6. 3/5 builtin/config: do not die in `get_color()`Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 11, 2025
  7. 4/5 builtin/config: special-case retrieving colors without a keyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 11, 2025
  8. Kristoffer HaugsbakkSep 11, 2025
  9. Patrick SteinhardtSep 15, 2025
  10. 5/5 builtin/config: do not spawn pager when printing color codesPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 11, 2025
  11. Kristoffer HaugsbakkSep 11, 2025
  12. 0/5 builtin/config: bug fixes for "get" subcommand with "--type=color"Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 15, 2025
  13. 1/5 t1300: write test expectations in the test's bodyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 15, 2025
  14. 2/5 t1300: small style fixupsPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 15, 2025
  15. 3/5 builtin/config: do not die in `get_color()`Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 15, 2025
  16. 4/5 builtin/config: special-case retrieving colors without a keyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 15, 2025
  17. Junio C HamanoSep 15, 2025
  18. 5/5 builtin/config: do not spawn pager when printing color codesPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 15, 2025
  19. Junio C HamanoSep 15, 2025
  20. Kristoffer HaugsbakkSep 16, 2025
  21. Patrick SteinhardtSep 18, 2025
  22. 0/5 builtin/config: bug fixes for "get" subcommand with "--type=color"Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 18, 2025
  23. 1/5 t1300: write test expectations in the test's bodyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 18, 2025
  24. 2/5 t1300: small style fixupsPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 18, 2025
  25. 3/5 builtin/config: do not die in `get_color()`Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 18, 2025
  26. 4/5 builtin/config: special-case retrieving colors without a keyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 18, 2025
  27. Junio C HamanoSep 18, 2025
  28. Patrick SteinhardtSep 22, 2025
  29. Junio C HamanoSep 22, 2025
  30. 5/5 builtin/config: do not spawn pager when printing color codesPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 18, 2025
  31. 0/5 builtin/config: bug fixes for "get" subcommand with "--type=color"Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 22, 2025
  32. 1/5 t1300: write test expectations in the test's bodyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 22, 2025
  33. 2/5 t1300: small style fixupsPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 22, 2025
  34. 3/5 builtin/config: do not die in `get_color()`Patrick Steinhardt, Sep 22, 2025
  35. 4/5 builtin/config: special-case retrieving colors without a keyPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 22, 2025
  36. 5/5 builtin/config: do not spawn pager when printing color codesPatrick Steinhardt, Sep 22, 2025

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