Re: [PATCH] Teach remote machinery about remotes.default config variable

Mark Levedahl [off-list ref] writes:

Basically, I think an important (but not complete) test of the design
is that

   git clone -o frotz git://frotz.foo.bar/myproject.git
   cd myproject
   git submodule init
   git submodule update

work, with origin = frotz throughout the submodules, and with the
whole project correctly checked out even if the entire project was
rehosted onto a different server.

I like that.  This is a very good argument, especially because
it clarifies very well that the issue is not about "'submodule
init' misbehaves" but "fetch/pull/merge does not play well with
clone -o".

The only remaining (minor) doubt I have (not in the sense that
"I object to it!", but in the sense that "I wish there could be
a better alternative, but I do not think of one offhand") is
polluting the core.* namespace with this configuration variable.

Looking at Documentation/config.txt, I realize that we already
have made a mistake of allowing core.gitproxy, but other than
that single mistake, everything in core.* is still about things
that apply to the use of git even when the repository does not
talk with any other repository.  If we deprecate and rename away
that one mistake, we can again make core.* to mean things that
are _really_ core, but using core.origin for "the default remote
is not called 'origin' but 'frotz' here" is a step backwards
from that ideal.

But that's a minor naming issue.