Re: Configuring the location of ~/.gitconfig

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

Ramkumar Ramachandra [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

I'd like to configure the location of ~/.gitconfig through an
environment variable.  My usecase is a simple enough: I have a
repository with all my dotfiles, and I don't want to symlink
~/dotfiles/.gitconfig from $HOME after cloning it.  Does anyone else
think the feature will be useful?

Not me. For that particular use case, my approach (long before I
switched the vcs that controls my dotfiles to git) have always been
to have ~/src that is version controlled, with a Makefile that
builds/adjusts dotfiles appropriately for each box and installs them
in the proper place.

Makefile is what I wanted to avoid when I suggested Ram that maybe Git
could _optionally_ read the location of global gitconfig from an
environment variable that can be exported in zshenv or bash_profile.

I don't think either way is the best way of managing dotfiles.  Just a
matter of preference.  The environment variable approach doesn't
require you to run `make` everytime you sync your dotfiles across
different machines, and that is what I like.

Also, Git allows configuring the location of template directory via an
environment variable (GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR).  Since Git has already fixed
the location of global gitconfig, it might as well read the location
of template directory from there (init.templatedir).  Why the added
flexibility?  Well, I have been exploiting the feature to manage git
templates through my zsh configuration.

-- 
Anurag Priyam