Re: [PATCH 08/15] merge: handle NULL value for branch.<name>.mergeOptions

[Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>]

> Le 11 nov. 2026 à 09:47, Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> a écrit :
> 
> On 10/11/2026 16:53, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>> Sorry but I do not understand this comment.
>>    [branch "main"] mergeOptions =
>> is an explicit "there is no extra options when we make a merge".
>>    [branch "main"] mergeOptions
>> is an attempt to set a configuration variable to boolean "true".
> 
> Oh, I'd forgotten we treat a missing value as "true" even for config settings that expect a non-boolen value.
> 
>> I am not sure if it helps users to pretend as if the latter were
>>    [branch "main"] mergeOptions =
>> if that is what you are hinting.  It would confuse them when they
>> see a true boolean variable
>>    [branch "main"] rebase
>> and wonder why
>>    [branch "main"] rebase =
>> does not behave the same way, no?
> 
> To me confusing thing is that we don't treat those two the same way - I'd find it much easier to reason about if empty and missing values were always treated the same and booleans required an explicit value,

Ditto.

> but it is too late to change that now.

Just thinking aloud, a “[config] strict = true” directive could affect
parsing the rest of the directives after it (including included files)?
I’d also want a way to affect .git/config without editing them all, but…

Anyway, not something to derail this topic with, but something to muse
on for a future feature?