Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > Why not use color.pager?
>
> I dug a bit to refresh my memory and it turns out that the reason we
> should not do so is because it means something totally different.
>
> color.[ch] defines want_color() that applications like "diff" and
> "log" can use to see if the application is configured to paint its
> output in colors.
>
> When that layer says for that particular application it should be
> decided automatically, then we call into color.c::check_auto_color()
> which is the only user of pager_use_color (which is set from the
> color.pager configuration variable). The purpose of that call is to
> ask if the pager is capable of colors.
That is not true. check_auto_color() returns 1 when the fd is a tty.
For example advice() would indirectly call check_auto_color() and no
pager is involved.
Inside the help built-in want_color(GIT_COLOR_UNKNOWN) will always
return 1 (unless you do something like `git help git > file`).
pager_use_color is completely ignored in this case.
It's used only when 1) the fd is not a tty, 2) it's stdout, 3) git is
using a pager... Only _then_ it checks for pager_use_color
(color.pager).
So no; the first purpose of check_auto_color() is to find out if the fd
is capable of showing colors, secondary, if we are using a pager, then
check the user configuration.
In the case we are using a pager it's not check if the pager is capable
of colors, the pager could be capable of colors and yet the user would
disable them: it's the check for the user preference.
> So in short, the color.pager is about "is the pager capable of
> colors?"
That's not the case.
Even the documentation says so:
color.pager::
A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
use (default is true).
> and the color.ui (and color.<cmd>) is about "does the user
> wants output from <cmd> in color?"
> Tying it directly to "color.pager" is wrong.
Why? color.pager is to enable/disable colored output when a pager is in
use.
The fact that it's man executing the pager and not git makes no
difference to the user.
Cheers.
--
Felipe Contreras
