Philip Oakley <philipoakley@xxxxxxx> writes:
> +Variable name/value syntax
> +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> +
> All the other lines (and the remainder of the line after the section
> header) are recognized as setting variables, in the form
> 'name = value' (or just 'name', which is a short-hand to say that
> @@ -69,7 +72,8 @@ stripped. Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the
> line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing
> whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in
> double quotes. Internal whitespaces within the value are retained
> -verbatim.
> +verbatim. Single quotes are not special and form part of the
> +variable's value.
>
> Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters
> must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`.
Hmph. This feels a bit backwards.
The original paragraph is horrible in that there is no clear mention
that a pair of dq can be used to quote (which primarily is useful if
your value have leading or trailing whitespaces); the closest hint
is "enclosed in double quotes" we see in the pre-context. The added
sentence singles out sq but it is unclear why it is necessary to
call out that it is not special---the readers can legitimately
wonder if backquotes are special or not and why.
I wonder if this is easier to understand:
diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index ad0f4510c3..5eebd539df 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -61,12 +61,16 @@ the variable is the boolean "true").
The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters
and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.
+The value part can have segments that are enclosed in a pair of
+double quotes (note: other kinds of quoting character pairs are not
+special)--the double quotes are stripped from the value.
+
A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by
ending it with a `\`; the backquote and the end-of-line are
stripped. Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the
line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing
-whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in
-double quotes. Internal whitespaces within the value are retained
+whitespaces of the line are discarded.
+Internal whitespaces within the value are retained
verbatim.
Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters
> @@ -89,10 +93,14 @@ each other with the exception that `includeIf` sections may be ignored
> if their condition does not evaluate to true; see "Conditional includes"
> below.
>
> +Both the `include` and `includeIf` sections implicitly apply an 'if found'
> +condition to the given path names.
> +
Mentioning that missing target file is not an error is definitely an
improvement. I've never viewed it as applying "if found" condition
myself, but it is not wrong per-se to do so, I would think.
> You can include a config file from another by setting the special
> `include.path` (or `includeIf.*.path`) variable to the name of the file
> to be included. The variable takes a pathname as its value, and is
> -subject to tilde expansion. These variables can be given multiple times.
> +subject to tilde expansion and the value syntax detailed above.
> +These variables can be given multiple times.
I have a mild suspicion that this adds negative value. Singling out
that "[include] path = ..." follows the usual value syntax makes
the readers wonder if there are some "[section] variable = ..." that
does not follow the value syntax that they have to be aware of and
careful about.
