# git makes it impossible to ignore or override global gitconfig, needs `GITCONFIGFILE` 5 messages from 2020-03-19 to 2020-03-20. Participants: Timothee Cour, Eric Wong, Jeff King. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/53029 ## Timothee Cour, 2020-03-19 05:48 Subject: git makes it impossible to ignore or override global gitconfig, needs `GITCONFIGFILE` Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CANri%2BEy71QbWxNH%2BRhMfYuUSDEpYtv28ushUhK8Tt0xWUAU9iw%40mail.gmail.com ``` git makes it impossible to ignore global gitconfig. This is essentially what's being asked here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23400449/how-to-make-git-temporarily-ignore-gitconfig ## proposal: add an environment variable (like for tig and other programs), eg: `GITCONFIGFILE=~/.gitconfig_temp git diff` seems like an easy change that would make it easy for users to ignore or override their gitconfig ## note: I've asked here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/git-users/1ehWsItL8vE but got 0 response after 6 months ``` ## Eric Wong, 2020-03-19 06:44 Subject: Re: git makes it impossible to ignore or override global gitconfig, needs `GITCONFIGFILE` Message-ID: <20200319064407.GA26408@dcvr> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20200319064407.GA26408%40dcvr In-Reply-To: ``` Timothee Cour wrote: > git makes it impossible to ignore global gitconfig. This is > essentially what's being asked here: > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23400449/how-to-make-git-temporarily-ignore-gitconfig > > ## proposal: > add an environment variable (like for tig and other programs), eg: > `GITCONFIGFILE=~/.gitconfig_temp git diff` > seems like an easy change that would make it easy for users to ignore > or override their gitconfig You can use GIT_CONFIG for that, and there's also GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM. They're both documented in the git-config(5) manpage. > ## note: > I've asked here: > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/git-users/1ehWsItL8vE but got > 0 response after 6 months Oh well... I don't pay any attention to that list, and not too much to this one, either. I was just working on the archives and noticed this was the latest message on this list :> ``` ## Jeff King, 2020-03-19 16:51 Subject: Re: git makes it impossible to ignore or override global gitconfig, needs `GITCONFIGFILE` Message-ID: <20200319165149.GA4074934@coredump.intra.peff.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20200319165149.GA4074934%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: <20200319064407.GA26408@dcvr> ``` On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 06:44:07AM +0000, Eric Wong wrote: > Timothee Cour wrote: > > git makes it impossible to ignore global gitconfig. This is > > essentially what's being asked here: > > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23400449/how-to-make-git-temporarily-ignore-gitconfig > > > > ## proposal: > > add an environment variable (like for tig and other programs), eg: > > `GITCONFIGFILE=~/.gitconfig_temp git diff` > > seems like an easy change that would make it easy for users to ignore > > or override their gitconfig > > You can use GIT_CONFIG for that, and there's also > GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM. They're both documented in the > git-config(5) manpage. I don't think $GIT_CONFIG is what Timothee whats. It only affects the git-config command, not config lookup in other programs. And it overrides _all_ config lookup, as if "git config --file" had been used. There's no variable to suppress just the user-level gitconfig. The usual technique (that we use in the test scripts) is to point $HOME somewhere else, but that may affect other programs. I wouldn't be opposed to GIT_CONFIG_NOGLOBAL if there's a use case, but it sounds like the desire is to actually provide new config. That can also be done for specific options with "git -c". Under the hood that is using GIT_CONFIG_PARAMETERS in the environment; you can set it individually, but note that it's a little picky about quoting (the individual keys are shell-quoted, but it insists that there is an outer layer of single-quotes, even if they weren't necessary; I wouldn't be opposed to making it more friendly). You can see what it produces like this: git -c alias.dump='!echo "$GIT_CONFIG_PARAMETERS"' dump -Peff ``` ## Timothee Cour, 2020-03-20 02:28 Subject: Re: git makes it impossible to ignore or override global gitconfig, needs `GITCONFIGFILE` Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CANri%2BEzrP0TeHTfjhsf%3DLZkwkEZU7fSRnnKN9NLga7CNow9F0Q%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20200319165149.GA4074934@coredump.intra.peff.net> ``` * GIT_CONFIG doesn't work as you mentioned and as was already mentioned in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23400449/how-to-make-git-temporarily-ignore-gitconfig * `HOME= `doesn't work for many reasons: it breaks other commands as you mentioned, it breaks `~`, and it doesn't work if users' git config is in /Users/timothee/.config//git/config ; and pointing it to an alternate home where you'd have `newhome/.gitconfig` would require a lot of workarounds to update paths including `~` * `XDG_CONFIG_HOME= ` also doesn't work (even if users' git config is in /Users/timothee/.config//git/config), which really seems buggy, eg:`XDG_CONFIG_HOME= git diff HEAD^` is still reading `/Users/timothee/.config//git/config` somehow * GIT_CONFIG_NOGLOBAL is also not good, I want to be able to simply point my config to some place else, not simply suppress reading git config * require passing commands (eg `git -c`) is not good either; it'd require updating scripts that rely on git (this could be arbitrarily complex, sometimes impossible if you just have a binary and no source code access) In contrast, what I'm suggesting is extremely simple to use, robust, and my understanding is it shouldn't be hard to implement. ˋˋˋ GITCONFIGFILE= git diff HEAD^ # empty config GITCONFIGFILE=/pathto/gitconfig2 git diff HEAD^ # uses specified git config file GITCONFIGFILE=/pathto/gitconfig2 run_some_complex_script # uses specified git config file everywhere ˋˋˋ by contrast, any approach based on passing command line flag (eg `git -c /pathto/gitconfig2 diff HEAD^`) will make the last case impossible to do since you'd need to update every git command inside (which could be in a compiled binary, etc) What i'm asking is the analog of `TIGRC_USER` for tig (https://jonas.github.io/tig/doc/tig.1.html) and many other programs On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 9:51 AM Jeff King wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 06:44:07AM +0000, Eric Wong wrote: > > > Timothee Cour wrote: > > > git makes it impossible to ignore global gitconfig. This is > > > essentially what's being asked here: > > > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23400449/how-to-make-git-temporarily-ignore-gitconfig > > > > > > ## proposal: > > > add an environment variable (like for tig and other programs), eg: > > > `GITCONFIGFILE=~/.gitconfig_temp git diff` > > > seems like an easy change that would make it easy for users to ignore > > > or override their gitconfig > > > > You can use GIT_CONFIG for that, and there's also > > GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM. They're both documented in the > > git-config(5) manpage. > > I don't think $GIT_CONFIG is what Timothee whats. It only affects the > git-config command, not config lookup in other programs. And it > overrides _all_ config lookup, as if "git config --file" had been used. > > There's no variable to suppress just the user-level gitconfig. The usual > technique (that we use in the test scripts) is to point $HOME somewhere > else, but that may affect other programs. > > I wouldn't be opposed to GIT_CONFIG_NOGLOBAL if there's a use case, but > it sounds like the desire is to actually provide new config. That can > also be done for specific options with "git -c". Under the hood that is > using GIT_CONFIG_PARAMETERS in the environment; you can set it > individually, but note that it's a little picky about quoting (the > individual keys are shell-quoted, but it insists that there is an outer > layer of single-quotes, even if they weren't necessary; I wouldn't be > opposed to making it more friendly). You can see what it produces like > this: > > git -c alias.dump='!echo "$GIT_CONFIG_PARAMETERS"' dump > > -Peff ``` ## Jeff King, 2020-03-20 05:41 Subject: Re: git makes it impossible to ignore or override global gitconfig, needs `GITCONFIGFILE` Message-ID: <20200320054101.GF499858@coredump.intra.peff.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20200320054101.GF499858%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 07:28:58PM -0700, Timothee Cour wrote: > * require passing commands (eg `git -c`) is not good either; it'd > require updating scripts that rely on git (this could be arbitrarily > complex, sometimes impossible if you just have a binary and no source > code access) Well, yes, that's why I suggested setting $GIT_CONFIG_PARAMETERS directly. :) That said, I don't have any real opposition to an environment variable to override the user-level config location, if somebody wants to work up a patch. A few preliminary thoughts: - there are several levels of config file, so it probably should be called GIT_GLOBAL_CONFIG or something to make it clear that it matches "config --global" (and not system or repo-level config) - we'll read user-level config from multiple sources currently: ~/.gitconfig and the xdg config dir. Presumably this would override them rather than add to them to be of any use. - I wondered for a moment if such a variable would need to be added to local_repo_env[] to get cleared when moving between repos. But as a user-level thing, it should be outside that. -Peff ```