On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 12:07:46PM -0600, Gregory Anders wrote: > 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. IMHO this is a good path forward. There's a thread from a few months ago which talks about this idea: https://lore.kernel.org/git/YCvotU6KVruFuf9%2F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/ There's some back and forth, and I'm not sure if I convinced Junio in the end. But certainly a patch would be a good way to restart the conversation. :) -Peff
