Re: Git --file doesn't override $HOME in version 1.8.1.2

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Sarajärvi Tony <Tony.Sarajarvi@digia.com> writes:

> Using Ubuntu 13.04 with Git 1.8.1.2 I stumbled upon a problem using Puppet.
>
> In Puppet we launch Git with the command: '/usr/bin/git config --file /home/qt/.gitconfig --get "user.name" "Qt Continuous Integration System"'

Hmph.  What does this even mean?

    git config --get user.name "Qt CIS"

I have a feeling that the command will exit with an error status 1.

> However, puppet logs: "fatal: unable to access
> '/root/.config/git/config': Permission denied".
>
> Puppet is run as root, so HOME points to /root, but still -file
> should override the environment variable.

Probably.

> If the same command is run directly from terminal as root, it works as well.

I am not sure what you mean by "works as well".  It behaves
differently and does not fail the same way?

> With 1.8.3.2 the problem didn't reoccur.

That is probably due to b1c418e1 (Merge branch
'jn/config-ignore-inaccessible' into maint, 2013-06-09)

But it is puzzling.

The "error out upon an inaccessible configuration file in usual
places" check we had since v1.8.1.1 was meant to make sure that you
will not be missing a basic configuration before running any command
(including "git config" itself).  As "root", you shouldn't even have
triggered the "unable to access: Permission denined" in the first
place.  There is something else going on.