Re: [RFC PATCH 1/1] config: surface editor failure in exit code

On Aug 18, 2026, at 4:42 AM, Karthik Nayak [off-list ref] wrote:

Kenneth Lorber [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Teach git config --edit to show editor failure to the
parent process.

Add 2 tests to t1300 to check editor exiting successfully
or failing.

Signed-off-by: Kenneth Lorber <redacted>
---
builtin/config.c  |  5 +++--
t/t1300-config.sh | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/builtin/config.c b/builtin/config.c
index 0882899c3f..a166b2131e 100644
--- a/builtin/config.c
+++ b/builtin/config.c

@@ -1291,6 +1291,7 @@ static int cmd_config_remove_section(int argc, const char **argv, const char *pr

static int show_editor(struct config_location_options *opts)
{
	char *config_file;
+	int ret;

	if (!opts->source.file && !startup_info->have_repository)
		die(_("not in a git directory"));

@@ -1313,10 +1314,10 @@ static int show_editor(struct config_location_options *opts)

		else if (errno != EEXIST)
			die_errno(_("cannot create configuration file %s"), config_file);
	}
-	launch_editor(config_file, NULL, NULL);
+	ret = launch_editor(config_file, NULL, NULL);
	free(config_file);

-	return 0;
+	return ret;
}

static int cmd_config_edit(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,

diff --git a/t/t1300-config.sh b/t/t1300-config.sh
index e3f8064889..9a8f852a86 100755
--- a/t/t1300-config.sh
+++ b/t/t1300-config.sh

@@ -1823,6 +1823,24 @@ test_expect_success 'command line overrides environment config' '

	test_cmp expect actual
'

+test_expect_success 'git config --edit successful exit' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
+	git init repo &&
+	GIT_EDITOR=true &&
+	export GIT_EDITOR &&
+	git -C repo config -e &&
+	unset GIT_EDITOR
+'

Nit: couldn't this be simply `test_env GIT_EDITOR=true git -C repo
config -e` and avoid the set, export and unset?

Thank you, this is exactly the cleanup I was looking for.

quoted

+
+test_expect_success 'git config --edit failure exit' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
+	git init repo &&
+	GIT_EDITOR=false &&
+	export GIT_EDITOR &&
+	test_must_fail git -C repo config -e &&
+	unset GIT_EDITOR
+'

Same here..

quoted

+
test_expect_success 'git config --edit works' '
	git config -f tmp test.value no &&
	echo test.value=yes >expect &&
--
2.43.0

The patch looks good to me otherwise :)

Thank you.