On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 09:39:25AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

So your counter-proposal is just stop at saying (possibly a milder
equivalent of) "nope, auto is no longer available. deal with it"?

yes.
though it should probably include "because it was found to have 
fundamentally flawed semantics. re-check the manual for alternatives." 
or something like that.

Or does it go even stronger and not even special case "auto" that
user sets (i.e. and start commented lines with "auto " prefix)?

no, silent failure would be counter-productive.