Re: [PATCH v6 2/6] Add git_env_ulong() to parse environment variable

> On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 02:54:11PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
>> A worse position is to have git_env_bool() that says "empty is
>> false" and add a new git_env_ulong() that says "empty is unset".
>> 
>> We should pick one or the other and use it for both.
>
> Yeah, I agree they should probably behave the same.
>
>> > The middle ground would be to die(). That does not seem super-friendly, but
>> > then we would also die with GIT_SMART_HTTP=foobar, so perhaps it is not
>> > unreasonable to just consider it a syntax error.
>> 
>> Hmm, I am not sure if dying is better.  Unless we decide to make
>> empty string no longer false everywhere and warn now and then later
>> die as part of a 3.0 transition plan or something, that is.
>
> I think it is better in the sense that while it may be unexpected, it
> does not unexpectedly do something that the user cannot easily undo.
>
> I really do not think this topic is worth the effort of a long-term
> deprecation scheme (which I agree _is_ required for a change to the
> config behavior). Let's just leave it as-is. We've seen zero real-world
> complaints, only my own surprise after reading the code (and Steffen's
> patch should be tweaked to match).