Re: [PATCH 1/4] Doc/config.txt: explain repeated sections

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Sun, Jul 09, 2017 at 12:57:07AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
> 
> >> +Multiple occurrences of the same section are all logically merged.  (There's
> >> +no special treatment for variables defined multiple times across physically
> >> +different sections, the variable is simply made multivalued.)
> >> +
> >
> > Looks correct; it's a bit surprising that we didn't already mention
> > multiple occurrences, but I do not find it so this is a good
> > addition. 
> >
> > I do not see a strong reason for () around the second sentence,
> > though.
> 
> After re-reading this, I am wondering if the "made multivalued"
> above need to be made less confusing.  For a variable that is single
> valued, the usual "the last one wins" rule is applied---it's not
> like
> 
>     [user] 
> 	name = astian
> 	name = gitster
> 
> makes user.name "gitster" while
> 
>     [user] 
> 	name = astian
>     [user]
> 	name = gitster
> 
> makes user.name "multivalued".  In either case, the last one wins,
> and it comes not from the syntax but from the semantics assigned to
> the variable in question.  What we want to say is not "multi-valued",
> but the above two forms both mean the same thing.
> 
> But perhaps I am needlessly worried about possible confusion too
> much.  I dunno.

FWIW, the use of "multivalued" here tickled my spider sense, too. I
think when talking on the list we generally reserve "multivalued" for
true "we expect this to be a list" variables. But the only mention of
"multivalued" in the config documentation seems to be:

  Some variables may appear multiple times; we say then that the
  variable is multivalued.

I think the proposed use is consistent with that (and that line is only
2 paragraphs above the proposed paragraph).

-Peff