Re: [Q] would it be bad to make /etc/gitconfig runtime configurable?

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 10:05:37AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> The subject says it all.  Would it be bad if we introduce an
> environment variable, GIT_SYSTEM_CONFIG=/etc/gitconfig, that names
> an alternative location of the system-wide configuration file?
> 
> That would supersede/deprecate GIT_CONFIG_NOSYSTEM that we
> introduced primarily so that we can run our tests without getting
> affected by the configuration that happens to be effective on the
> host that the test is being run.

I can't think of a reason it would be bad. There shouldn't be a security
question, as controlling the environment already lets you run arbitrary
code, override system config variables, etc.

I know when I was writing the tests for 0d44a2d (config: return
configset value for current_config_ functions, 2016-05-26) I had to omit
the "system" case, because we had no way of pointing at a specific file.
So I do not know whether a runtime system config variable would be
useful for users, but it would definitely make testing easier.

-Peff