Re: [RFC] Possibility to choose ~/.config/git/config instead of ~/.gitconfig

Jonathan Nieder [off-list ref] writes:

What other hidden files at the root of the user's directory are you
talking about?

A typical user configuration (or at least mine ;-) ) can include:

[core]
	excludesfile = ~/.gitignore
	attributesfile = ~/.gitattributes

Not having a default value for these two variables is a bit painful. For
example, when I teach newbies not to version their *~ backup files, I'd
like to grab their keyboard and type for them

  echo '*~' >> ~/.gitignore

but right now, it takes a bit more time than that (which multiplied by
35 students in a room is not negligible ;-) ).

Actually, I now remember trying to find a default value some time ago:

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/133343

The conclusion essentially boiled down to "let's drop the patch until
there's a clear consensus on what the default value should be", and
"don't default to ~/.gitsomething, because it will be painful to migrate
to a user config directory later".

Once it's official that the configuration is in stg like ~/.config/git/,
we can start thinking about a default value for core.excludesfile and
core.attributesfile, in the same directory (note: we're just talking
about default values here, so users having set the variable explicitely
won't be affected by the change).

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/