Subject: Re: [PATCH] docs: clarify meaning of core.commentString=auto

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2025 10:15:15 -0700

Oswald Buddenhagen <[email-masked]> writes:

>>before making a commit.  But "this makes it impossible" does not
>>quite convey that to casual readers.
>>
> no, i meant what i wrote: it makes it _literally_ impossible. it follows
> from the preceding sentence that _whatever_ is in the template will NOT
> be the comment char.

OK, it (i.e. the order in which things happen) would be a good thing
to add to the explanation, to unconfuse readers who (incorrectly)
guess that auto comment character is determined and then template is
read, which is where my comment came from.

> reading through the thread of the original submission, the feature is a
> workaround for `commit -m` and `commit --amend` being inconsistent wrt.
> message washing.

Perhaps somebody can be talked into fixing it ;-)

With a clear explanation, I am OK if somebody wants to advocate to
deprecate (and remove at Git 3.0 boundary) the "auto" support ;-)

Thanks.