Re: [PATCH] -C/--chdir command line option

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

The only excuse I remember seeing in the thread was that "make has '-C'
option, so let's have it, because it is similar", which does not justfiy
addition of that option to git at all to me.

Just after having said that "make has it, so let's have it ourselves, too"
is a non-excuse to any feature bloat, one thing I could accept a patch to
imitate what "make" does, especially if we are going to actually clean up
the startup sequence like we have discussed sometime ago to fix breakage
around --work-tree, is to have VAR=VAL (e.g. "make CFLAGS=-O2") on the
command line.  We could use that syntax to allow configuration variables
to be overridden, like so:

	$ git core.whitespace=cr-at-eol log -p master..next

I wouldn't however suggest allowing the syntax to set environment
variables, like:

	$ git GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="A U Thor" commit

as this is something your shell lets you do easily, i.e:

	$ GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="A U Thor" git commit

But overriding some configuration variables for a single command
invocation is not something you can do without actually editing the
configuration file for some variables, so the former would be justified.

2008/10/20 Junio C Hamano [off-list ref]:

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:
I wouldn't however suggest allowing the syntax to set environment
variables, like:

       $ git GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="A U Thor" commit

as this is something your shell lets you do easily, i.e:

       $ GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="A U Thor" git commit

No, someplace else it doesn't (yes, windows again).
It is mostly hard to do there, because the system shell is so
primitive, and installation of something sane (sh or env) is
an additional (and hard to explain to windows zealots) hassle.

And even in something like Perl it is hard: you cannot
change the environment just for the child process, you
have to change your own, run the process and change
it back.

So, yes, I like your suggestion, but I'd like to _include_
setting all the Git's environment.