On Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 4:36 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> When the author or the committer identity is missing when required,
> "git" errors out with a message that suggests to set these
> configuration variables at the per-user level as the easiest way
> forward. This message is given to a brand-new user, whose
> ~/.gitconfig hasn't been configured for user.name and user.email,
> who runs "git commit --author=...", too, but such a user may find it
> confusing ("why? I just gave you a name and e-mail").
>
> State whose identity is missing as the reason why we are erroring
> out, when we give the hint, to help reduce the confusion.
I had trouble following the first paragraph due to the run-on nature
of the second sentence. Perhaps the entire message could be rewritten
something like this:
If `user.name` and `user.email` have not been configured and the
user invokes:
git commit --author=...
without without specifying `--committer=`, then Git errors out
with a message asking the user to configure `user.name` and
`user.email` but doesn't tell the user which attribution was
missing. This can be confusing for a user new to Git who isn't
aware of the distinction between user, author, and committer.
Give such users a bit more help by extending the error message to
also say which attribution is expected.
