Re: [PATCH] check_repository_format_version(): run git_default_config() again

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

Sorry, I do not understand this patch from the commit log
description.

In the old days in 1.5.2 before either implementation of
work-tree stuff, this function never called git_default_config()
and presumably "git log" worked as expected for Brian.  Why is
this call needed _here_, not in some of the callers?

Sorry scratch that.  v1.5.2 did not even have core.pager.

I see git_config(git_default_config) is called from
setup_git_directory_gently() in the version that introduced
core.pager.  Curiously enough it does the config twice, once
where no GIT_DIR is set and it sets inside_work_tree, and
another by calling git_config(git_setup_config) -- big thanks
for sorting this mess out.

I however have a mild suspicion that this has to be done much
earlier.

For example, "git -p log" would first call handle_options(),
which calls the setup_pager() logic, and then we call
handle_internal_command() which calls setup_git_directory() that
eventually leads to the callchain of finding the .git directory
and .git/config file to be used.  In that case, when we make the
call to setup_pager() from handle_options(), we haven't even
figured out if there is a configuration file, let alone reading
from it.

We could work this around by having the "we need config -- where
is it" logic in setup_pager(), but if we later have new options
like -p that affects the way how git wrapper itself behaves
based on the configuration, we would need the same "early config
read" logic to support it.