Subject: Re: Why does "git config" output nothing instead of the default value for unset variables?

From: Jakub Narębski <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:30:00 +0200

Sebastian Schuberth wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm just wondering why it was decided to work like this. IMHO it's quite
> inconvenient that git config outputs nothing for any unset (but known)
> variable. Usually when I query a variable I'm not so much interested in
> whether it is at all (explicitly) set to some value or not, but what
> value is currently in use. With that in mind, it would make much more
> sense for git config to print the implicit default value instead of
> nothing if a known variable is unset. For unknown / custom variables it
> still could display nothing, which also gives a nice way to check
> whether a given variable name is known to Git or not.

I think git-config was meant to be git agnostic (and therefore usable
outside git, and for files other that git config files).

It would be better to add required functionality to git-var, IMHO.

-- 
Jakub Narębski