Re: how exactly can git config section names contain periods?

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

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

> Syntactically we do allow:
>
>   [foo.bar]
>   key = true
>
> in the config file, which should equivalent to:
>
>   [foo "bar"]
>   key = true
>
> This is mentioned later:
>
>   There is also a deprecated [section.subsection] syntax. With this
>   syntax, the subsection name is converted to lower-case and is also
>   compared case sensitively. These subsection names follow the same
>   restrictions as section names.
>
> This has been deprecated since 2011. Maybe it's time to finally get rid
> of it.

Sure, but is it worth the transition noise?

The way we lightly utter the word "deprecated" around here probably
does not align well with the way how end-users perceive the word.
Just marking something deprecated in a corner of the documentation
set, without actively making an effort to wean the existing users
off, while happily accepting the existing "deprecated" practice, is
what we've done.

In those repositories people have with "[foo.bar] key" syntax that
were created before or after 2011, we first should start issuing a
"that syntax will no longer be valid---I'll update it for you if you
want (y/n)?" warning and keep it for a release or three before
finally removing the "feature".