Subject: [PATCH v2 10/13] config: format expiry dates gently

From: "Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2026 23:55:15 +0000

From: Derrick Stolee <[email-masked]>

Move the logic for formatting expiry date config values into a helper
method and use gentle parsing when needed.

There is an unfortunate asymmetry in these two parsing methods, but we
need to treat a positive response from parse_expiry_date() as an error
or we will get incorrect values.

This updates the behavior of 'git config list --type=expiry-date' to be
quiet when attempting parsing on non-date values.

Signed-off-by: Derrick Stolee <[email-masked]>
---
 builtin/config.c  | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++------
 t/t1300-config.sh |  9 +--------
 2 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/builtin/config.c b/builtin/config.c
index 4664651dd2..71b685d943 100644
--- a/builtin/config.c
+++ b/builtin/config.c
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #include "abspath.h"
 #include "config.h"
 #include "color.h"
+#include "date.h"
 #include "editor.h"
 #include "environment.h"
 #include "gettext.h"
@@ -336,6 +337,23 @@ static int format_config_path(struct strbuf *buf,
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static int format_config_expiry_date(struct strbuf *buf,
+				     const char *key_,
+				     const char *value_,
+				     int gently)
+{
+	timestamp_t t;
+	if (gently) {
+		if (parse_expiry_date(value_, &t))
+			return -1;
+	} else if (git_config_expiry_date(&t, key_, value_) < 0) {
+		return -1;
+	}
+
+	strbuf_addf(buf, "%"PRItime, t);
+	return 0;
+}
+
 /*
  * Format the configuration key-value pair (`key_`, `value_`) and
  * append it into strbuf `buf`.  Returns a negative value on failure,
@@ -371,12 +389,9 @@ static int format_config(const struct config_display_options *opts,
 			res = format_config_bool_or_str(buf, value_);
 		else if (opts->type == TYPE_PATH)
 			res = format_config_path(buf, key_, value_, gently);
-		else if (opts->type == TYPE_EXPIRY_DATE) {
-			timestamp_t t;
-			if (git_config_expiry_date(&t, key_, value_) < 0)
-				return -1;
-			strbuf_addf(buf, "%"PRItime, t);
-		} else if (opts->type == TYPE_COLOR) {
+		else if (opts->type == TYPE_EXPIRY_DATE)
+			res = format_config_expiry_date(buf, key_, value_, gently);
+		else if (opts->type == TYPE_COLOR) {
 			char v[COLOR_MAXLEN];
 			if (git_config_color(v, key_, value_) < 0)
 				return -1;
diff --git a/t/t1300-config.sh b/t/t1300-config.sh
index 59a82b9aef..c134d85d8a 100755
--- a/t/t1300-config.sh
+++ b/t/t1300-config.sh
@@ -2536,13 +2536,6 @@ test_expect_success 'list --type=path shows only canonicalizable path values' '
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'list --type=expiry-date shows only canonicalizable dates' '
-	cat >expecterr <<-EOF &&
-	error: '\''True'\'' for '\''section.foo'\'' is not a valid timestamp
-	error: '\''~/dir'\'' for '\''section.path'\'' is not a valid timestamp
-	error: '\''red'\'' for '\''section.red'\'' is not a valid timestamp
-	error: '\''Blue'\'' for '\''section.blue'\'' is not a valid timestamp
-	EOF
-
 	git config ${mode_prefix}list --type=expiry-date >actual 2>err &&
 
 	# section.number and section.big parse as relative dates that could
@@ -2550,7 +2543,7 @@ test_expect_success 'list --type=expiry-date shows only canonicalizable dates' '
 	test_grep section.big actual &&
 	test_grep section.number actual &&
 	test_grep "section.date=$(git config --type=expiry-date section.$key)" actual &&
-	test_cmp expecterr err
+	test_must_be_empty err
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'list --type=color shows only canonicalizable color values' '
-- 
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