On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 01:47:55PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> writes: > > > The GIT_CONFIG variable doesn't work that way. It is not a general > > mechanism used by all of Git, but rather a specific feature of the > > git-config program (and even there it is a historical wart; you should > > use "git config --file" instead). > > We both have known that, but a fresh re-read of GIT_CONFIG in "git > help config" gave me a misleading impression. > > ENVIRONMENT > ----------- > > GIT_CONFIG:: > Take the configuration from the given file instead of .git/config. > Using the "--global" option forces this to ~/.gitconfig. Using the > "--system" option forces this to $(prefix)/etc/gitconfig. > > is what we have above the GLOBAL and SYSTEM you quoted below. We > should say GIT_CONFIG is only for "git config" command while the > other two affects everybody, right? Yes, it looks like that description is from 2007 (when GIT_CONFIG really did impact other commands). And adding GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL and SYSTEM nearby certainly didn't help (before then, I might have argued that since GIT_CONFIG is only in git-config(1), it is more clear that it only applies there). Here's a short series to improve things. [1/3]: doc/git-config: explain --file instead of referring to GIT_CONFIG [2/3]: doc/git-config: clarify GIT_CONFIG environment variable [3/3]: doc/git-config: simplify "override" advice for FILES section Documentation/git-config.txt | 28 +++++++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) -Peff
