Subject: Re: edit Author/Date metadata as part of 'git commit' $EDITOR invocation?

From: Adam Megacz <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:35:57 +0000

Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> writes:
> Nanako Shiraishi <[email-masked]> writes:
>> Quoting Adam Megacz <[email-masked]>
>>> Perhaps a preference (off by default) demanding that they be set
>>> explicitly when "git commit -m" is used?

>> Sverre pointed out why this won't work.

I agree; making it a preference will not help.

I propose instead that "git commit -e" cause the metadata headers to be
provided to $EDITOR.  People who care about the metadata can simply get
in the habit of always passing that option when invoking "git commit".

> The approach may have been Ok 10 years ago, back when `whoami`@`hostname`,
> at least on systems that were competently maintained, gave a reasonable
> mail address for most people, but I don't think it is adequate anymore to
> majority of people,

I agree.

> So I don't think anybody minds if we refuse to work if we are going to end
> up using a name that we didn't get from an explicit end user configuration
> (i.e. GIT_*_EMAIL and GIT_*_NAME environment and user.* configuration
> variables).

I support that as well, although I'd still like to be shown the data.  I
wear a few different hats (each with its own email address), and I don't
think I want to pick one of them as the default.

Thanks,

  - a