Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 2/2] builtin/config.c: prefer `--type=bool` over `--bool`, etc.

From: Taylor Blau <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2018 23:41:57 -0700

On Fri, Apr 06, 2018 at 02:14:34AM -0400, Eric Sunshine wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 1:29 AM, Taylor Blau <[email-masked]> wrote:
> > builtin/config.c: prefer `--type=bool` over `--bool`, etc.
>
> This patch isn't just preferring --type; it's actually introducing the
> functionality. Perhaps:
>
>     builtin/config.c: support --type=<type> as preferred alias for --<type>
>
> (Not worth a re-roll.)

Thanks; I like this more, even though it is lengthy.

> > `git config` has long allowed the ability for callers to provide a 'type
> > specifier', which instructs `git config` to (1) ensure that incoming
> > values are satisfiable under that type, and (2) that outgoing values are
> > canonicalized under that type.
> >
> > In another series, we propose to add extend this functionality with
>
> "add extend"?

Thanks for pointing this out -- I fixed it in v6.

> > `--type=color` and `--default` to replace `--get-color`.
> >
> > However, we traditionally use `--color` to mean "colorize this output",
> > instead of "this value should be treated as a color".
> >
> > Currently, `git config` does not support this kind of colorization, but
> > we should be careful to avoid inhabiting this option too soon, so that
> > `git config` can support `--type=color` (in the traditional sense) in
> > the future, if that is desired.
> >
> > In this patch, we prefer `--type=<int|bool|bool-or-int|...>` over
> > `--int`, `--bool`, and etc. This allows the aforementioned upcoming
> > patch to support querying a color value with a default via `--type=color
> > --default=....`, without squandering `--color`.
>
> Drop one of the periods in "...." if you happen to re-roll for some reason.

Great catch, thanks.

> > Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <[email-masked]>
> > ---
> > diff --git a/Documentation/git-config.txt b/Documentation/git-config.txt
> > @@ -9,13 +9,13 @@ git-config - Get and set repository or global options
> >  SYNOPSIS
> >  --------
> >  [verse]
> > -'git config' [<file-option>] [type] [--show-origin] [-z|--null] name [value [value_regex]]
> > +'git config' [<file-option>] [--type] [--show-origin] [-z|--null] name [value [value_regex]]
>
> It's pretty confusing to see bare "--type" like this which makes it
> seem as if it doesn't take an argument at all. Better would be
> "[--type=<type>]".

Agreed; I have made this change in v6.

> > @@ -38,12 +38,13 @@ existing values that match the regexp are updated or unset.  If
> > +The `--type` option requests 'git config' to ensure that the configured values
> > +assosciated with the given variable(s) are of the given type. When given
>
> s/assosciated/associated/

Ditto.

> > +`--type`, 'git config' will convert the value to that type's canonical form.
> > +ensure that the variable(s) are of the given type and convert the value to the
> > +canonical form.
>
> Meh, looks like some sort of editing botch here. I doubt you meant to
> repeat "canonical form" like this.

Ditto.

> > If no type specifier is passed, no checks or transformations are
> > +performed on the value. Callers may unset any pre-existing type specifiers with
> > +`--no-type`.
> >
> > +--no-type::
> > +  Un-sets the previously set type specifier (if one was previously set). This
> > +  option requests that 'git config' not canonicalize the retrieved variable.
> > +  `--no-type` has no effect without `--type=<type>` or `--<type>`.
>
> The final sentence doesn't really add value; I'd probably drop it as
> extraneous. (Subjective, and not worth a re-roll.)

Hm. I like the completeness of it -- I think that I would prefer to
leave it in, unless others have strong feelings.

> > diff --git a/builtin/config.c b/builtin/config.c
> > @@ -61,6 +61,33 @@ static int show_origin;
> > +static int option_parse_type(const struct option *opt, const char *arg,
> > +                            int unset)
> > +{
> > +       [...]
> > +       if (!strcmp(arg, "bool"))
> > +               *type = TYPE_BOOL;
> > +       else if (!strcmp(arg, "int"))
> > +               *type = TYPE_INT;
> > +       else if (!strcmp(arg, "bool-or-int"))
> > +               *type = TYPE_BOOL_OR_INT;
> > +       else if (!strcmp(arg, "path"))
> > +               *type = TYPE_PATH;
> > +       else if (!strcmp(arg, "expiry-date"))
> > +               *type = TYPE_EXPIRY_DATE;
> > +       else {
> > +               die(_("unrecognized --type argument, %s"), arg);
> > +               return 1;
>
> Pointless unreachable 'return'.

Removed -- this is a habit of mine from Git LFS. We have a function
similar to die(), but Go doesn't know that it will terminate the
program, so it forces me to write a "return" after it.

Thanks,
Taylor