Skip to content

config: read both home and xdg files for --global - #2196

Open
delilahw wants to merge 3 commits into
gitgitgadget:masterfrom
delilahw:lilah/fix-config-list-global-home-and-xdg/patchset
Open

config: read both home and xdg files for --global#2196
delilahw wants to merge 3 commits into
gitgitgadget:masterfrom
delilahw:lilah/fix-config-list-global-home-and-xdg/patchset

Conversation

@delilahw

@delilahw delilahw commented Aug 7, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

Hi,

Here is my reroll.

As reported in [1]: `$HOME/.gitconfig` and `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config` are both valid global config locations, but `git config list --global` only includes the former in its output.

Suppose we have this config in `$HOME/.gitconfig`:

[home]
    config = true

And this config in `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config`:

[xdg]
    config = true

Then, to reproduce the issue that `--global` only shows the home config:

$ git config list --global --show-scope --show-origin
global  file:/Users/delilah/.gitconfig    home.config=true

Git correctly applies the XDG config in its effective configuration, but it doesn't show up when `--global` is specified. We can confirm this by checking the output without the `--global` flag:

$ git config list --show-scope --show-origin
global  file:/Users/delilah/.config/git/config    xdg.config=true
global  file:/Users/delilah/.gitconfig            home.config=true

The expected behaviour is both configs should be shown when `--global` is specified, so we'd expect its output to look the same as above. This was confirmed in [2], which quoted the `git config` documentation:

> OPTIONS
>     --global::
>         For writing options: write to global `~/.gitconfig` file
>         rather than the repository `.git/config`, write to
>         `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config` file if this file exists and the
>         `~/.gitconfig` file doesn't.
>
>         For reading options: read only from global `~/.gitconfig` and from
>         `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config` rather than from all available files.

The first patch fixes forward slash normalisation on Windows paths. The second patch adds a flag for error handling when reading configuration files. The third patch implements the fix to include both config files when `--global` is specified.

Changes in v2:

  • Perform forward slash conversion in `xdg_config_home_for()` rather than the widely used `cleanup_path()`, which could've broken callers that do not expect normalized slashes.
  • Squash patches 2-4, such that implementation and tests are in the same patch rather than two sequential patches.
  • Reorder patches to prevent a regression from being intentionally introduced and then fixed in a later patch.
  • Refactor changes to `do_git_config_sequence()` (originally in v1 patch 4) to use a function for better readability.

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAFA9we-QLQRzJdGMMCPatmfrk1oHeiUu9msMRXXk1MLE5HRxBQ@mail.gmail.com/
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqmt5lezi3.fsf@gitster.g/
[3]: #1938

Thank you all for your time!
Delilah

cc: Delilah Ashley Wu delilahwu@microsoft.com
cc: Derrick Stolee stolee@gmail.com
cc: Johannes Schindelin johannes.schindelin@gmx.de
cc: Junio C Hamano gitster@pobox.com
cc: Patrick Steinhardt ps@pks.im
cc: Kristoffer Haugsbakk kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com

@gitgitgadget

gitgitgadget Bot commented Aug 7, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

There is an issue in commit 4c0da9e:
path: use forward slashes in XDG config on Windows

  • Commit not signed off

@delilahw

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Author

NB: i won't be submitting this via gitgitgadget anymore because I'd like the subject to contain v2 (superseding #1938). planning to use b4 instead.

@dscho

dscho commented Aug 13, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

NB: i won't be submitting this via gitgitgadget anymore because I'd like the subject to contain v2 (superseding #1938). planning to use b4 instead.

If you wanted to use GitGitGadget and have a v2, you would need to reopen the original PR and force-push there, then /submit there.

@delilahw

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Author

If you wanted to use GitGitGadget and have a v2, you would need to reopen the original PR and force-push there, then /submit there.

thanks for the suggestion @dscho !! i did something weird with my branch and it wouldn't let me reopen the original PR after force pushing, which is why i opened this new PR. but i've setup b4 in the meantime and keen to try it out hehe

@delilahw
delilahw force-pushed the lilah/fix-config-list-global-home-and-xdg/patchset branch 3 times, most recently from 33d79b9 to 1a89c55 Compare August 23, 2026 04:22
@gitgitgadget

gitgitgadget Bot commented Aug 23, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown

There is an issue in commit 4f4ffa4:
path: use forward slashes in XDG config on Windows

  • Lines in the body of the commit messages should be wrapped between 60 and 76 characters.
    Indented lines, and lines without whitespace, are exempt

@delilahw
delilahw force-pushed the lilah/fix-config-list-global-home-and-xdg/patchset branch 3 times, most recently from 7872b45 to 9c9964c Compare August 23, 2026 08:06
Git prefers forward slashes as directory separators across all
platforms. On Windows, the backslash is the native directory separator,
but all Windows versions supported by Git also accept the forward slash
in all but rare circumstances. Our tests expect forward slashes. Git
displays relative paths with forward slashes. Forward slashes are more
convenient to use in shell scripts.

For these reasons, we enforced forward slashes in `interpolate_path()`
in 5ca6b7b (config --show-origin: report paths with forward slashes,
2016-03-23). However, other code paths may construct paths containing
backslashes. For example, `config --show-origin` prints the XDG config
path with mixed slashes on Windows:

    $ git config --list --show-origin
    file:C:/Program Files/Git/etc/gitconfig         system.foo=bar
    file:"C:\\Users\\delilah/.config/git/config"    xdg.foo=bar
    file:C:/Users/delilah/.gitconfig                home.foo=bar
    file:.git/config                                local.foo=bar

These mixed slashes occur because the `$HOME` and `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`
environment variables usually contain backslashes on Windows, and
`xdg_config_home_for()` interpolates them into templates that use
hardcoded forward slashes.

Since callers of `xdg_config_home_for()` handle mixed slashes correctly,
it is reasonable to assume that they can handle paths with only forward
slashes. Let's enforce forward slashes in `xdg_config_home_for()` by
using `convert_slashes()` on Windows.

Also, there are no tests for the XDG path with `--show-origin`. Add a
test for slash conversion and a confidence check for the default path.

Signed-off-by: Delilah Ashley Wu <delilahwu@microsoft.com>
Teach `do_git_config_sequence()` to optionally report an error if no
configuration files in the sequence were successfully processed. Gate
this new behaviour with a flag and keep it disabled for now.

Add tests to record existing behaviour and prevent regressions in the
next patch, "config: read global scope via config_sequence", which adds
a code path that enables the flag. When no global configuration file
exists, `git config list` succeeds whereas `git config list --global`
fails. The command output is irrelevant, so only check the exit code.

Signed-off-by: Delilah Ashley Wu <delilahwu@microsoft.com>
When both `$HOME/.gitconfig` and `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config` exist,
`git config list --global` and `git config get --global` read the home
configuration file but ignore the XDG file. Bug reporters expected these
`--global` scoped commands to read both files [1][2], which would be
consistent with the documentation and the behaviour of the unscoped
variants. For example, `git config list` and `git config get` (without
`--global`) read from both files (in addition to system-wide and
repository-specific entries). We should address this inconsistency by
respecting both files during `--global` read operations.

The implementation assumes that each configuration scope corresponds to
a single file. So during `--global` read operations, Git selects one
file path to pass to `git_config_from_file_with_options(file)`. Because
the global scope can come from more than one file, we should use another
method to read the global configuration.

Since `git config list --show-scope --show-origin` reads both the home
and XDG files, there must be existing code that respects both locations,
namely `do_git_config_sequence()` which reads from all scopes. Introduce
flags to ignore all but the global scope (i.e. ignore system, local,
worktree, and cmdline). Then, reuse the function to read only the global
scope when `--global` is specified. This was the suggested solution [3]
in the original bug report [1].

Modify tests to check that both configuration files are respected during
`--global` read operations. Also, add additional tests to supplement the
regression tests from the previous patch, "config: let sequence require
a successful file". The expected behaviour of `git config list` is:
  - Without `--global`, it should not bail on unreadable/non-existent
    global config files.

  - With `--global`, it should bail when both `$HOME/.gitconfig` and
    `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config` are unreadable. It should not bail
    when one or more of them is readable.

Implementation notes:
  - The `ignore_global` flag is not set anywhere, so the
    `if (!opts->ignore_global)` condition is always met. Include the
    flag for completeness, but we can remove it if desired.

  - Keep populating `opts->source.file` in `builtin/config.c` because it
    is used as the destination config file for write operations. The
    proposed changes could convolute the code because there is no single
    source of truth for the config file locations in the global scope.
    Add a comment to clarify this.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAFA9we-QLQRzJdGMMCPatmfrk1oHeiUu9msMRXXk1MLE5HRxBQ@mail.gmail.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAAdFe9yhBk-WecVzCTsjQ-4Z3AZAbpP+w+B076ouM3qX6d1WAg@mail.gmail.com/
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/git/kl6ly1oze7wb.fsf@chooglen-macbookpro.roam.corp.google.com

Reported-by: Jade Lovelace <lists@jade.fyi>
Reported-by: Nils Fahldieck <nils@fahldieck.de>
Suggested-by: Glen Choo <glencbz@gmail.com>
Helped-by: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Helped-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Signed-off-by: Delilah Ashley Wu <delilahwu@microsoft.com>
@delilahw
delilahw force-pushed the lilah/fix-config-list-global-home-and-xdg/patchset branch from 9c9964c to dd42943 Compare August 23, 2026 09:53
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

2 participants