From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
To: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Cc: Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo@scientia.org>, git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: why does git set X in LESS env var?
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:04:16 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20231012000416.GA520855@coredump.intra.peff.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <xmqqa5sokdd3.fsf@gitster.g>
On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 03:23:20PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo@scientia.org> writes:
>
> > But I still don't get from that why X would be needed?
> >
> > My less manpage documents it as:
> >> -X or --no‐init
> >> Disables sending the termcap initialization and deinitialization
> >> strings to the terminal. This is sometimes desirable if the
> >> deinitialization string does something unnecessary, like clearing
> >> the screen.
> >
> > Is it to avoid clearing the screen?
>
> I think that was the reason we added it back in 2005. In any case,
> asking "why" is not a useful use of anybody's time, because it is
> very unlikely to change in the official version we ship, and because
> it is so easy for any individual who does not like it to drop by
> exporting the $LESS environment variable.
I agree it is probably not worth changing now, but I think the history
here is a little interesting.
Yes, I think "X" was added because less would clear the screen after
exiting, and with "F" this meant you'd see nothing. Here's a thread from
the same time period discussing it:
https://lore.kernel.org/git/cc723f590610210623sbee2075i5f2fd441cceb84ae@mail.gmail.com/
But I also think this was a pretty well-known annoyance with "less" back
then.
However, I can't seem to reproduce it now! Digging into the history and
the changelog, this note is in "changes between less versions 487 and
530":
Don't output terminal init sequence if using -F and file fits on one
screen.
So it seems like the problem has been fixed inside less for recent
versions. And in theory we _could_ drop "-X" if it is causing problems.
That version of less is ~5 years old. It does seem a little premature to
assume everybody has it. And as you say, if there are people who really
care about their LESS options, it is easy for them to override it.
-Peff
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-10-12 0:04 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-10-11 22:19 why does git set X in LESS env var? Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-11 22:23 ` Junio C Hamano
2023-10-11 22:26 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-11 22:51 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-11 23:16 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-11 23:29 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-11 23:43 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-12 0:06 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 0:22 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-12 0:31 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 1:39 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-12 5:46 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 20:23 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-12 21:15 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 21:48 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-12 22:36 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 23:06 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-13 4:43 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-13 13:45 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-13 15:00 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 0:04 ` Jeff King [this message]
2023-10-12 0:16 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 1:39 ` Junio C Hamano
2023-10-12 5:30 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 16:19 ` Junio C Hamano
2023-10-13 20:12 ` Dragan Simic
[not found] ` <cfbe174f-23ac-4a35-8db4-66bdfdfdc14e@gmail.com>
2023-11-02 6:01 ` Thomas Guyot
2023-11-02 6:14 ` Dragan Simic
2023-11-02 6:48 ` Dragan Simic
2023-11-02 13:19 ` Thomas Guyot
2023-11-02 14:19 ` Dragan Simic
2023-11-03 11:47 ` Thomas Guyot
2023-11-03 15:28 ` Andy Koppe
2023-11-03 18:38 ` Dragan Simic
2023-11-03 18:22 ` Dragan Simic
2023-11-06 3:47 ` Dragan Simic
2024-03-21 15:53 ` Dragan Simic
2023-10-12 3:54 ` Christoph Anton Mitterer
2023-10-12 5:57 ` Dragan Simic
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