On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@xxxxxx> wrote: > Hi, > > On Sat, 24 Jan 2009, Felipe Contreras wrote: > >> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Hannu Koivisto <azure@xxxxxx> wrote: >> > Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> > >> >> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 6:17 PM, Hannu Koivisto <azure@xxxxxx> wrote: >> >>> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> >>> >> >>>> This brings back my previous question: where is the home directory in >> >>>> a Windows system? >> >>> >> >>> It's where %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% points to. >> >> >> >> I thought it was something like that. Do we want something like that >> >> in the manual, or should we assume Windows users know that? >> > >> > I should have added that Unix programs (i.e. Cygwin programs and >> > even some native ports) probably use %HOME% which may be different >> > from %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. I recall that if you haven't >> > explicitly set up HOME in Windows environment, Cygwin sets it up >> > magically from passwd or falls back to %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. I >> > have no idea if msysgit respects %HOME% if it is set or always uses >> > %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% or something completely different (user >> > profile, most likely). >> > >> > It certainly may be that "home directory" is a foreign concept to >> > some Windows users. Some might know it as a user profile or a >> > personal folder (just guessing, I'm pretty isolated from less >> > experienced Windows users), even though user profile is a separate >> > concept from "home directory" (note that there is %USERPROFILE% >> > which by default is the same as %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% at least in >> > XP). >> > >> > In any case, what Cygwin git does should be expected by Cygwin >> > users. If msysgit wanted to be a really native Windows application >> > and store the configuration where Microsoft thinks it should be >> > stored, it probably shouldn't store the config under "home >> > directory" to begin with (I'm guessing that's what it does) but >> > under %USERPROFILE\Application Data\Git (...FILE\Local >> > Settings\... in case non-roaming storage is wanted). And in that >> > case the manual might be misleading for msysgit users. See >> > e.g. <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995853.aspx>. >> >> Isn't that enough argument to stop assuming the user knows where is >> the "home directory"? > > Why does it appear as if we always have to bend over for Windows? That is > really frustrating. > > In any case, the only thing the user would need to know the location of > $HOME for is for .gitconfig. And for Windows users I suggest using the > dialog in git gui (for the variables that are editable there), which > should cover most of what the user needs. For everything else, they > should use "git config". > > Because if you really start with explaining where the home can be on > Windows, you would also have to cover why "%USERPROFILE%" does not work in > Git bash. And before you know what is happening, you have a big ass > Windows chapter in the user manual that revolves around anything except > Git. Huh? That was exactly my point. It's much easier for everyone to just use git config --global than explain how create and edit the .gitconfig file. If this is explained it shouldn't be in the "Telling git your name" section. -- Felipe Contreras -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
