Re: [PATCH] Document HOME environment variable

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 9, 2024, 23:47 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqwmg8mnab.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <pull.1834.git.1733771894867.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

"M Hickford via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:

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> From: Alejandro Barreto <alejandro.barreto@ni.com>
>
> Git documentation refers to $HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME often, but does
> not specify how or where these values come from on Windows where neither
> is set by default. The new documentation reflects the behavior of
> setup_windows_environment() in compat/mingw.c.

Makes sense. As long as the logic to make this fallback is in my tree (as opposed to being implemented by a set of GfW/minGit add-on patches), its documentation should also be in my tree.

Will queue.

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> +System
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +`HOME`::
> +	Specifies the path to the user's home directory. On Windows, if
> +	unset, Git will set a process environment variable equal to:
> +	`$HOMEDRIVE$HOMEPATH` if both `$HOMEDRIVE` and `$HOMEPATH` exist;
> +	otherwise `$USERPROFILE` if `$USERPROFILE` exists.

I wondered what the reaction by the readers on non-Windows would be, but hopefully they would read this to mean that HOME will not be mucked with, even if they leave it unset (or they take it granted that HOME is set somewhere while they log in and they do not have to worry about it), so it may be OK.

Just out of curiousity, is Git the only thing that uses $HOME on Windows? Or among may other programs on Windows that use $HOME, is the way Git gives a fall-back value out of these three variables unusual and deserves documentation?

Thanks.