Hi all,
Certain git config parameters (notably sendemail.smtpServer) expect an
absolute path in order to use a command. If the value begins with a /
git interprets it as a command; otherwise, it's interpreted it as a
server hostname.
Using an absolute path is not very portable, however. If I want to have
a common shared config file across multiple machines, each of which uses
a command for smtpServer (e.g. msmtp) but installed at different
locations, I have to modify the config file on each machine to update
the absolute path.
Obviously this is not a *huge* deal, but it is a minor annoyance. I'm
wondering if it would be possible to add a new syntax to config options
like this. For example,
[sendemail]
smtpServer = !msmtp
The leading ! character says "the following value is a command that
should be looked up in PATH". This is congruent with alias definitions,
where the leading ! means to run the following value as a command
directly instead of as a git subcommand.
This also is unambiguous since server hostnames will never begin with a
! character.
I would be happy to attempt a patch at this change if it's something the
git maintainers are open to. And if there are any other options that
this would make sense for, I can add those too.
Thanks,
Greg
