Re: [PATCH RESEND] Do not override LESS

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

Anders Melchiorsen [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Passing options to "less" with the LESS environment variable can
interfere with existing environment variables. There are at least two
problems, as the following examples show:

1. Alice is using git with colors. Now she decides to set LESS=i for
some reason. Suddenly, she sees codes in place of colors because LESS
is no longer set automatically.

2. Bob sets GIT_PAGER="less -RS", but does not set LESS. Git sets
LESS=FRSX before calling $GIT_PAGER. Now Bob wonders why his pager is
not always paging, when he explicitly tried to clear the F option.

3. Christ has been happily using git with his PAGER set to "less".  He
   suddenly notices that output from git linewraps and the pager does not
   exit when showing a short output, and gets very unhappy.

Well, I noted that point already, so I had hoped for a reply
explaining why it is a big problem. Maybe setting PAGER="less" is more
common than I think, as I have never seen it.

While I am wary of advocating a patch that makes Christ unhappy, the
"3." issue is easily fixed by him setting GIT_PAGER="less -FRSX".

My concern is that without reading the source, it can be confusing to
figure out what happens with less, $LESS and git. I think my patch
improves on that. On the other hand, predictability is not really
needed if the current setup DWIM. And maybe it does.

This is hardly a big issue either way, so now that I have response on
the patch, I will not pursue it further.


Thanks,
Anders.