The current documentation for color.pager is technically correct, but slightly misleading and doesn't really clarify the purpose of the variable. As explained in the original thread which added it: https://lore.kernel.org/git/E1G6zPH-00062L-Je@xxxxxxxxxxxx/ the point is deal with pagers that don't understand colors. And hence it being set to "true" is necessary for colorizing output to the pager, but not sufficient by itself (you must also have enabled one of the other color options, though note that these are set to "auto" by default these days). Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> --- Just a loose end from: https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqlf8c2k2y.fsf@gitster.g/ that I think is worth tying up before we forget. Documentation/config/color.txt | 5 +++-- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/config/color.txt b/Documentation/config/color.txt index d5daacb13a..e05d520a86 100644 --- a/Documentation/config/color.txt +++ b/Documentation/config/color.txt @@ -127,8 +127,9 @@ color.interactive.<slot>:: interactive commands. color.pager:: - A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in - use (default is true). + A boolean to specify whether `auto` color modes should colorize + output going to the pager. Defaults to true; set this to false + if your pager does not understand ANSI color codes. color.push:: A boolean to enable/disable color in push errors. May be set to -- 2.32.0.rc0.424.g95d3bde94f