[PATCH] git-commit-tree(1): correct description of defaults

Peter Eisentraut· Jan 10, 2013, 12:29 UTC · lore

The old phrasing indicated that the EMAIL environment variable takes precedence over the user.email configuration setting, but it is the other way around.

Signed-off-by: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
---
 Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt |    4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Show changes to Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt +2 −2

diff --git a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
index 6d5a04c..a221169 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
@@ -72,13 +72,13 @@ if set:
 	GIT_COMMITTER_NAME
 	GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL
 	GIT_COMMITTER_DATE
-	EMAIL
 
 (nb "<", ">" and "\n"s are stripped)
 
 In case (some of) these environment variables are not set, the information
 is taken from the configuration items user.name and user.email, or, if not
-present, system user name and the hostname used for outgoing mail (taken
+present, the environment variable EMAIL, or, if that is not set,
+system user name and the hostname used for outgoing mail (taken
 from `/etc/mailname` and falling back to the fully qualified hostname when
 that file does not exist).

-- 
1.7.10.4

Junio C Hamano· Jan 10, 2013, 18:33 UTC · re: Peter Eisentraut · lore

Re: [PATCH] git-commit-tree(1): correct description of defaults

Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

> The old phrasing indicated that the EMAIL environment variable takes
> precedence over the user.email configuration setting, but it is the
> other way around.
>
> Signed-off-by: Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org>
> ---

It could be argued that the observed behaviour is a bug, by the way.

If we followed the normal "command line options trump environment variables that in turn trump config variables that in turn trump whatever the default values we compute using cues from the system" precedence order, EMAIL ought to come between the more specific GIT_{AUTHOR,COMMITTER}_EMAIL environment variables and the user.email configuration variable.

But reading the value of EMAIL can also be seen as part of the "using cues from the system" (it often is set in equivalents of "$HOME/.profile" by equivalents of "adduser") step, and the original motivation to add user.email indeed was to allow users to override EMAIL (or the name we grab from the system) without having to set the GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL environment variable.

So the current behaviour is correct, and the patch is a good (belated ;-) update to the documentation.

Will apply.  Thanks.

Show 22 quoted lines

>  Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt |    4 ++--
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
> index 6d5a04c..a221169 100644
> --- a/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/git-commit-tree.txt
> @@ -72,13 +72,13 @@ if set:
>  	GIT_COMMITTER_NAME
>  	GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL
>  	GIT_COMMITTER_DATE
> -	EMAIL
>  
>  (nb "<", ">" and "\n"s are stripped)
>  
>  In case (some of) these environment variables are not set, the information
>  is taken from the configuration items user.name and user.email, or, if not
> -present, system user name and the hostname used for outgoing mail (taken
> +present, the environment variable EMAIL, or, if that is not set,
> +system user name and the hostname used for outgoing mail (taken
>  from `/etc/mailname` and falling back to the fully qualified hostname when
>  that file does not exist).

patchgit-commit-tree(1): correct description of defaults