Re: gitconfig includes

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 02:53:08PM -0500, Eli Barzilay wrote:

> > This already is documented, and I think it is clear enough.
> >
> >        --[no-]includes
> >                   Respect include.* directives in config files when
> >                   looking up values.  Defaults to off when a specific
> >                   file is given (e.g., using --file, --global, etc)
> >                   and on when searching all config files.
> 
> Yeah, that's clear, sorry for not checking the latest.
> 
> [I'd expect/wish it to be on by default though...  Any reason for the
> default being off in these cases?]

It definitely needs to default to off for "-f", as we would not want
surprises when accessing files like ".gitmodules" that come from
untrusted sources.

I think it's arguable whether "--global" should behave the same. It
makes the rule simple: "if you specify a single file, includes default
to off". But I don't think there would be any particular harm. The
existing default was mostly chosen for simplicity and least-surprise
with respect to backwards compatibility.

There's a little more discussion in 9b25a0b52 (config: add include
directive, 2012-02-06).

-Peff