Re: [PATCH] docs: clarify meaning of core.commentString=auto

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 17, 2025, 20:17 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqv7s78l8t.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <20250315140913.577404-1-oswald.buddenhagen@gmx.de>

Oswald Buddenhagen <oswald.buddenhagen@gmx.de> writes:

> -If set to "auto", `git-commit` would select a character that is not
> -the beginning character of any line in existing commit messages.

This is so far in the past but I suspect this was deliberately left vague so that we can add (or subtract) the set of possible letters to use.

> +If set to "auto", `git-commit` will select the first character
> +from the set "#;@!$%^&|:" that does not appear at the beginning
> +of any line in the prepared commit message prior to editing.

So I am not sure if this is an improvement.

> +Note that this makes it impossible to include comments in the
> +prepare-commit-msg hook's output or the commit message template.

Care to rephrase? There are degrees of possibilities and "makes it impossible" is being overly broad.

I suspect you are saying that it is not nice to make it the responsibility of the end-user who chooses "auto" to ensure that they adjust the default '#' comments injected from the template or hook output when

 - they have a line that begins with '#' in their message;
 - the "auto" mechanism chooses to use ';' as the comment character;
 - the template is written assuming '#' as the comment character and
   has comments.

before making a commit. But "this makes it impossible" does not quite convey that to casual readers.

Thanks.