Git doesn't set special options to it's pager command if the LESS environment variable is set. I noticed when I started using Gentoo that git was putting all output into a pager even if it were less than one page, which it didn't do under Ubuntu. A fellow Gentoo user confirms this; apparently Gentoo's defaults set LESS, but without a -F.
Should git always tack on a -F when it invokes less, or should this be put on the user to look up what to do? Or should I go complain to the Gentoo folks?
Andreas EricssonRe: Git pager woes
J.R. Mauro wrote:
> Git doesn't set special options to it's pager command if the LESS > environment variable is set. I noticed when I started using Gentoo > that git was putting all output into a pager even if it were less than > one page, which it didn't do under Ubuntu. A fellow Gentoo user > confirms this; apparently Gentoo's defaults set LESS, but without a > -F. > > Should git always tack on a -F when it invokes less, or should this be > put on the user to look up what to do? Or should I go complain to the > Gentoo folks?
Go complain to Gentoo. If the user has set it explicitly (even if that happens behind the user's back), we absolutely mustn't fiddle with it.
-- Andreas Ericsson andreas.ericsson@op5.se OP5 AB www.op5.se Tel: +46 8-230225 Fax: +46 8-230231
Matthieu MoyRe: Git pager woes
"J.R. Mauro" <jrm8005@gmail.com> writes:
> Git doesn't set special options to it's pager command if the LESS > environment variable is set.
Yes, this is by design: if you customized less, git obeys the configuration you've set. Otherwise, it takes a default wich is more appropriate to git that what "less" does without $LESS set.
That policy isn't perfect, but I think any other would be worse: I wouldn'l like git to change my configuration if I did set $LESS myself, and I also prefer git's default to LESS default when it comes to paging git commands (but I like less's default for other uses, for example, I like the man page to disapear when I close it).
-- Matthieu