Re: Bug report: GIT_CONFIG and user.email/name

On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 01:47:55PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

The GIT_CONFIG variable doesn't work that way. It is not a general
mechanism used by all of Git, but rather a specific feature of the
git-config program (and even there it is a historical wart; you should
use "git config --file" instead).

We both have known that, but a fresh re-read of GIT_CONFIG in "git
help config" gave me a misleading impression.

    ENVIRONMENT
    -----------

    GIT_CONFIG::
            Take the configuration from the given file instead of .git/config.
            Using the "--global" option forces this to ~/.gitconfig. Using the
            "--system" option forces this to $(prefix)/etc/gitconfig.

is what we have above the GLOBAL and SYSTEM you quoted below.  We
should say GIT_CONFIG is only for "git config" command while the
other two affects everybody, right?

Yes, it looks like that description is from 2007 (when GIT_CONFIG really
did impact other commands). And adding GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL and SYSTEM
nearby certainly didn't help (before then, I might have argued that
since GIT_CONFIG is only in git-config(1), it is more clear that it only
applies there).

Here's a short series to improve things.

  [1/3]: doc/git-config: explain --file instead of referring to GIT_CONFIG
  [2/3]: doc/git-config: clarify GIT_CONFIG environment variable
  [3/3]: doc/git-config: simplify "override" advice for FILES section

 Documentation/git-config.txt | 28 +++++++++++++++++-----------
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

-Peff