Subject: Re: [PATCH] config: suggest the correct form when key contains "="

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 06:26:27 +0900

"Harald Nordgren via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]> writes:

> From: Harald Nordgren <[email-masked]>
>
> When a user types "git config foo.bar=baz", git_config_parse_key()
> rejects the key with "error: invalid key: foo.bar=baz" but gives no
> indication of what the user should have written.  The mistake is a
> common one for users who reach for INI-file syntax or for the
> "--flag=value" convention used by other command-line tools.
>
> Since "=" is never a valid character in a config key, treat its
> presence as a strong signal of this specific mistake and follow the
> error with a one-line suggestion in the "(did you mean ...)" style
> used elsewhere in git, e.g.:
>
>     $ git config pull.rebase=false
>     error: invalid key: pull.rebase=false
>       (did you mean "git config set pull.rebase false"?)

If the command line were

	git config get foo.bar=baz
	git config set foo.bar=baz nitfol

we shouldn't give an extra "did you mean?" at all.

The only cases you may want to do the "did you mean?" I think are

	git config foo.bar=baz
	git config set foo.bar=baz

And I think git_config_parse_key() is at a way too low level to tell
in what context we are seeing this faulty key to guess end-user's
intention to limit our "did you mean?"

I also wonder if, given that "=" in anywhere other than three-level
names, is invalid, we should just start accept

	git config foo.bar=baz
	git config set foo.bar=baz

and interpret them as

	git config set foo.bar baz

We of course need to be careful about non-invalid keys, i.e.

	git config foo.bar=baz.boo

is a request to read the value of that named variable, i.e.

	[foo "bar=baz"]
		boo = its value

so either you start offering unsolicited "did you mean?" or accepting
tokens with '=' in them as new style "set", you need to be extra
careful not to trigger a false positive.