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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"scalar: feature request: document config options for register","articleBody":"I would like to know which `git` config options are set a result of running `scalar register`.\n\n**Motivation**, I recently encountered my first usage of `scalar`, which looked something like:\n\n```console\n$ scalar register\n$ git pull\nfetch normally indicates which branches had a forced update,\nbut that check has been disabled; to re-enable, use '--show-forced-updates'\nflag or run 'git config fetch.showForcedUpdates true'\n\u003c--- SNIP: rest of the fetch output ---\u003e\n```\n\nI was confused by this warning: I didn't remember having set that option, and was wondering why it might've been set. Without further context, my instinct would be to follow the provided instruction and run `git config fetch.showForcedUpdates true'`\n\n**Proposal**\n\nAdd comments when `register` sets config values to at least help identify the source of the change, something like:\n\n```\n[fetch]\n\tshowForcedUpdates = true # set by scalar\n```\n\nOtherwise, in the absence of any further content users (or at least me) may be tempted to unset this variable (and possibly others) to:\n\n* Silence warnings like the above\n* As a matter of house cleaning: I'll sometimes look over configurations and remove options I think might be superfluous (especially if I can't remember why it was added)\n\nAdditionally: it would be nice to document _why_ a config value is set: how is setting this config variable expected to improve performance?\n\n```\n[fetch]\n\tshowForcedUpdates = true # set by scalar: checking for forced updates requires walking additional commits and calculations that may slow fetches significantly\n```\n\nHere's a patch for a proof-of-concept:\n\n```diff\ndiff --git i/scalar.c w/scalar.c\nindex bb3edceddb..af07945fe0 100644\n--- i/scalar.c\n+++ w/scalar.c\n@@ -137,18 +137,21 @@ struct scalar_config {\n static int set_scalar_config(const struct scalar_config *config, int reconfigure)\n {\n \tchar *value = NULL;\n+\tchar *file = NULL;\n \tint res;\n \n \tif ((reconfigure \u0026\u0026 config-\u003eoverwrite_on_reconfigure) ||\n \t    git_config_get_string(config-\u003ekey, \u0026value)) {\n \t\ttrace2_data_string(\"scalar\", the_repository, config-\u003ekey, \"created\");\n-\t\tres = git_config_set_gently(config-\u003ekey, config-\u003evalue);\n+\t\tfile = repo_git_path(the_repository, \"config\");\n+\t\tres = git_config_set_in_file_gently(file, config-\u003ekey, \" # set by scalar\", config-\u003evalue);\n \t} else {\n \t\ttrace2_data_string(\"scalar\", the_repository, config-\u003ekey, \"exists\");\n \t\tres = 0;\n \t}\n \n \tfree(value);\n+\tfree(file);\n \treturn res;\n }\n```","author":{"url":"https://github.com/matthewhughes934","@type":"Person","name":"matthewhughes934"},"datePublished":"2025-05-12T19:04:51.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/751/git/issues/751"}