Re: [PATCH 1/2] user-manual: add global config section

Michael J Gruber [off-list ref] writes:

Well, Junio certainly is authoritative, and I don't want to risk any bad

Even though I usually call them "configuration variables", I do not
consider myself authoritative in this particular issue, as I did not care
about the wording myself that much.  It is not like we have two (or three)
distinct concepts that the user need to be aware of among configuration
variable/option(/setting).  In other words, I never thought consistently
sticking to one variant matters that much for this particular case, and
I've used the word very casually and interchangeably, but except in one
specific context---see below.

I am open to be corrected by Documentation/glossary.txt and other sources.

2d2465c (Add documentation for git-config-set, 2005-11-17)

is the origin of that doc for git-config. I'm not just claiming it
myself. That commit introduced "option", uses it in all but one place,
and this never changed since then! [The ratio went up from 6:1 to 40:5]
I have no objection to changing this established notion, but established
it is. I haven't tracked down the use of option vs. variable in other
places than git-config.txt and its predecessors.

I am Ok with calling them "configuration options", and I am also Ok with
calling them just "options" when it is clear from the context that we are
talking about configuration file.

The _only_ thing I deliberately do is to avoid calling them configuration
"options" when discussing "command line options override what you have in
the configuration file", but even there I would use "settings" and
"variables" interchangeably.  E.g. both of these are fine with me:

    The settings in your .git/config file will give the default when there
    is no command line option given.

vs

    The variables in your .git/config file will give the default when
    there is no command line option given.

but personally I think it would make it less easier to follow if you
changed these "settings/variables" to "options".