Re: [PATCH 1/2] user-manual: Simplify the user configuration.

[Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:59 PM, Hannu Koivisto <azure@iki.fi> wrote:
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 6:17 PM, Hannu Koivisto <azure@iki.fi> wrote:
>>> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> 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"?

-- 
Felipe Contreras