Re: [PATCH v2] allow user aliases for the --author parameter

Michael J Gruber [off-list ref] writes:

This allows the use of author abbreviations when specifying commit
authors via the --author option to git commit. "--author=$key" is
resolved by looking up "user.$key.name" and "user.$key.email" in the
config.

Maybe it is just me, but I am hesitant about the contamination of user.*
configuration namespace.  This patch as a general solution does not scale
well, once you start working with more than a few dozen people.

Why was it insufficient to use an external shortname-to-fullname mapping
file like git-svn and git-cvsimport does, again?