Re: [PATCH] Add two grep config options

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 10:12:23AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:
> 
> > One shortcoming of such a scheme, though, is that it is an
> > all-or-nothing proposal...
> 
> I fully agree with this assessment, and I think that was the primary
> reason that we rejected --plumbing / GIT_PLUMB (i.e. as too naive to be
> useful).
> 
> > So what we really want is to let the script "allow" certain options from
> > the user's preferences. This could be done easily with individual config
> > options, like:
> >
> >   git --allow=grep.extended grep ...
> 
> I think this is probably the right thing to do _if_ we wanted to add such
> a configuration variable and give a way to let script writers protect
> themselves.

Note that "git --allow=grep.extended" is not useful without
GIT_PLUMBING=1. Otherwise, users at the command line would have to
individually allow each config option, which makes them pointless.

Probably you already figured that out, but I wasn't sure from what you
wrote.

> But would any user go all that trouble, just not to say "-nE" from the
> command line (or use an alias that was designed not to crash with
> scripts)?

I dunno. I generally prefer to use extended regexps when I can, but I
don't remember ever having been annoyed that they are not the default
with git grep. Perhaps because 99% of my greps are for literal symbol
names (whereas in my editor, I am often doing substitutions, and I am
continually annoyed at having to use backslash to make my parentheses
magical).

-Peff