builtin/config: introduce `--default`

For some use cases, callers of the `git-config(1)` builtin would like to
fallback to default values when the variable asked for does not exist.
In addition, users would like to use existing type specifiers to ensure
that values are parsed correctly when they do exist in the
configuration.

For example, to fetch a value without a type specifier and fallback to
`$fallback`, the following is required:

  $ git config core.foo || echo "$fallback"

This is fine for most values, but can be tricky for difficult-to-express
`$fallback`'s, like ANSI color codes.

This motivates `--get-color`, which is a one-off exception to the normal
type specifier rules wherein a user specifies both the configuration
variable and an optional fallback. Both are formatted according to their
type specifier, which eases the burden on the user to ensure that values
are correctly formatted.

This commit (and those following it in this series) aim to eventually
replace `--get-color` with a consistent alternative. By introducing
`--default`, we allow the `--get-color` action to be promoted to a
`--type=color` type specifier, retaining the "fallback" behavior via the
`--default` flag introduced in this commit.

For example, we aim to replace:

  $ git config --get-color variable [default] [...]

with:

  $ git config --default default --type=color variable [...]

Values filled by `--default` behave exactly as if they were present in
the affected configuration file; they will be parsed by type specifiers
without the knowledge that they are not themselves present in the
configuration.

Specifically, this means that the following will work:

  $ git config --int --default 1M does.not.exist
  1048576

In subsequent commits, we will offer `--type=color`, which (in
conjunction with `--default`) will be sufficient to replace
`--get-color`.

Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

3 files changed, 58 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/git-config.txt b/Documentation/git-config.txt
index b759009c75..c3adafd78a 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-config.txt
@@ -240,6 +240,10 @@ Valid `<type>`'s include:
 	using `--file`, `--global`, etc) and `on` when searching all
 	config files.
 
+--default <value>::
+  When using `--get`, and the requested variable is not found, behave as if
+  <value> were the value assigned to the that variable.
+
 CONFIGURATION
 -------------
 `pager.config` is only respected when listing configuration, i.e., when
diff --git a/builtin/config.c b/builtin/config.c
index 24d735e16a..2f78a02ca1 100644
--- a/builtin/config.c
+++ b/builtin/config.c
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ static char term = '\n';
 static int use_global_config, use_system_config, use_local_config;
 static struct git_config_source given_config_source;
 static int actions, type;
+static char *default_value;
 static int end_null;
 static int respect_includes_opt = -1;
 static struct config_options config_options;
@@ -149,6 +150,7 @@ static struct option builtin_config_options[] = {
 	OPT_BOOL(0, "name-only", &omit_values, N_("show variable names only")),
 	OPT_BOOL(0, "includes", &respect_includes_opt, N_("respect include directives on lookup")),
 	OPT_BOOL(0, "show-origin", &show_origin, N_("show origin of config (file, standard input, blob, command line)")),
+	OPT_STRING(0, "default", &default_value, N_("value"), N_("with --get, use default value when missing entry")),
 	OPT_END(),
 };
 
@@ -313,6 +315,16 @@ static int get_value(const char *key_, const char *regex_)
 	config_with_options(collect_config, &values,
 			    &given_config_source, &config_options);
 
+	if (!values.nr && default_value) {
+		struct strbuf *item;
+		ALLOC_GROW(values.items, values.nr + 1, values.alloc);
+		item = &values.items[values.nr++];
+		strbuf_init(item, 0);
+		if (format_config(item, key_, default_value) < 0)
+			die(_("failed to format default config value: %s"),
+				default_value);
+	}
+
 	ret = !values.nr;
 
 	for (i = 0; i < values.nr; i++) {
@@ -651,6 +663,12 @@ int cmd_config(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		usage_with_options(builtin_config_usage, builtin_config_options);
 	}
 
+	if (default_value && !(actions & ACTION_GET)) {
+		error("--default is only applicable to --get");
+		usage_with_options(builtin_config_usage,
+			builtin_config_options);
+	}
+
 	if (actions & PAGING_ACTIONS)
 		setup_auto_pager("config", 1);
 
diff --git a/t/t1310-config-default.sh b/t/t1310-config-default.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..6049d91708
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t1310-config-default.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='Test git config in different settings (with --default)'
+
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+test_expect_success 'uses --default when entry missing' '
+	echo quux >expect &&
+	git config -f config --default=quux core.foo >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'does not use --default when entry present' '
+	echo bar >expect &&
+	git -c core.foo=bar config --default=baz core.foo >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'canonicalizes --default with appropriate type' '
+	echo true >expect &&
+	git config -f config --default=yes --bool core.foo >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'dies when --default cannot be parsed' '
+	test_must_fail git config -f config --type=expiry-date --default=x --get \
+		not.a.section 2>error &&
+	test_i18ngrep "failed to format default config value" error
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'does not allow --default without --get' '
+	test_must_fail git config --default=quux --unset a.section >output 2>&1 &&
+	test_i18ngrep "\-\-default is only applicable to" output
+'
+
+test_done