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diff --git a/Documentation/technical/api-config.txt b/Documentation/technical/api-config.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9a778b0cad --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/technical/api-config.txt @@ -0,0 +1,317 @@ +config API +========== + +The config API gives callers a way to access Git configuration files +(and files which have the same syntax). See linkgit:git-config[1] for a +discussion of the config file syntax. + +General Usage +------------- + +Config files are parsed linearly, and each variable found is passed to a +caller-provided callback function. The callback function is responsible +for any actions to be taken on the config option, and is free to ignore +some options. It is not uncommon for the configuration to be parsed +several times during the run of a Git program, with different callbacks +picking out different variables useful to themselves. + +A config callback function takes three parameters: + +- the name of the parsed variable. This is in canonical "flat" form: the + section, subsection, and variable segments will be separated by dots, + and the section and variable segments will be all lowercase. E.g., + `core.ignorecase`, `diff.SomeType.textconv`. + +- the value of the found variable, as a string. If the variable had no + value specified, the value will be NULL (typically this means it + should be interpreted as boolean true). + +- a void pointer passed in by the caller of the config API; this can + contain callback-specific data + +A config callback should return 0 for success, or -1 if the variable +could not be parsed properly. + +Basic Config Querying +--------------------- + +Most programs will simply want to look up variables in all config files +that Git knows about, using the normal precedence rules. To do this, +call `git_config` with a callback function and void data pointer. + +`git_config` will read all config sources in order of increasing +priority. Thus a callback should typically overwrite previously-seen +entries with new ones (e.g., if both the user-wide `~/.gitconfig` and +repo-specific `.git/config` contain `color.ui`, the config machinery +will first feed the user-wide one to the callback, and then the +repo-specific one; by overwriting, the higher-priority repo-specific +value is left at the end). + +The `git_config_with_options` function lets the caller examine config +while adjusting some of the default behavior of `git_config`. It should +almost never be used by "regular" Git code that is looking up +configuration variables. It is intended for advanced callers like +`git-config`, which are intentionally tweaking the normal config-lookup +process. It takes two extra parameters: + +`filename`:: +If this parameter is non-NULL, it specifies the name of a file to +parse for configuration, rather than looking in the usual files. Regular +`git_config` defaults to `NULL`. + +`respect_includes`:: +Specify whether include directives should be followed in parsed files. +Regular `git_config` defaults to `1`. + +Reading Specific Files +---------------------- + +To read a specific file in git-config format, use +`git_config_from_file`. This takes the same callback and data parameters +as `git_config`. + +Querying For Specific Variables +------------------------------- + +For programs wanting to query for specific variables in a non-callback +manner, the config API provides two functions `git_config_get_value` +and `git_config_get_value_multi`. They both read values from an internal +cache generated previously from reading the config files. + +`int git_config_get_value(const char *key, const char **value)`:: + + Finds the highest-priority value for the configuration variable `key`, + stores the pointer to it in `value` and returns 0. When the + configuration variable `key` is not found, returns 1 without touching + `value`. The caller should not free or modify `value`, as it is owned + by the cache. + +`const struct string_list *git_config_get_value_multi(const char *key)`:: + + Finds and returns the value list, sorted in order of increasing priority + for the configuration variable `key`. When the configuration variable + `key` is not found, returns NULL. The caller should not free or modify + the returned pointer, as it is owned by the cache. + +`void git_config_clear(void)`:: + + Resets and invalidates the config cache. + +The config API also provides type specific API functions which do conversion +as well as retrieval for the queried variable, including: + +`int git_config_get_int(const char *key, int *dest)`:: + + Finds and parses the value to an integer for the configuration variable + `key`. Dies on error; otherwise, stores the value of the parsed integer in + `dest` and returns 0. When the configuration variable `key` is not found, + returns 1 without touching `dest`. + +`int git_config_get_ulong(const char *key, unsigned long *dest)`:: + + Similar to `git_config_get_int` but for unsigned longs. + +`int git_config_get_bool(const char *key, int *dest)`:: + + Finds and parses the value into a boolean value, for the configuration + variable `key` respecting keywords like "true" and "false". Integer + values are converted into true/false values (when they are non-zero or + zero, respectively). Other values cause a die(). If parsing is successful, + stores the value of the parsed result in `dest` and returns 0. When the + configuration variable `key` is not found, returns 1 without touching + `dest`. + +`int git_config_get_bool_or_int(const char *key, int *is_bool, int *dest)`:: + + Similar to `git_config_get_bool`, except that integers are copied as-is, + and `is_bool` flag is unset. + +`int git_config_get_maybe_bool(const char *key, int *dest)`:: + + Similar to `git_config_get_bool`, except that it returns -1 on error + rather than dying. + +`int git_config_get_string_const(const char *key, const char **dest)`:: + + Allocates and copies the retrieved string into the `dest` parameter for + the configuration variable `key`; if NULL string is given, prints an + error message and returns -1. When the configuration variable `key` is + not found, returns 1 without touching `dest`. + +`int git_config_get_string(const char *key, char **dest)`:: + + Similar to `git_config_get_string_const`, except that retrieved value + copied into the `dest` parameter is a mutable string. + +`int git_config_get_pathname(const char *key, const char **dest)`:: + + Similar to `git_config_get_string`, but expands `~` or `~user` into + the user's home directory when found at the beginning of the path. + +`git_die_config(const char *key, const char *err, ...)`:: + + First prints the error message specified by the caller in `err` and then + dies printing the line number and the file name of the highest priority + value for the configuration variable `key`. + +`void git_die_config_linenr(const char *key, const char *filename, int linenr)`:: + + Helper function which formats the die error message according to the + parameters entered. Used by `git_die_config()`. It can be used by callers + handling `git_config_get_value_multi()` to print the correct error message + for the desired value. + +See test-config.c for usage examples. + +Value Parsing Helpers +--------------------- + +To aid in parsing string values, the config API provides callbacks with +a number of helper functions, including: + +`git_config_int`:: +Parse the string to an integer, including unit factors. Dies on error; +otherwise, returns the parsed result. + +`git_config_ulong`:: +Identical to `git_config_int`, but for unsigned longs. + +`git_config_bool`:: +Parse a string into a boolean value, respecting keywords like "true" and +"false". Integer values are converted into true/false values (when they +are non-zero or zero, respectively). Other values cause a die(). If +parsing is successful, the return value is the result. + +`git_config_bool_or_int`:: +Same as `git_config_bool`, except that integers are returned as-is, and +an `is_bool` flag is unset. + +`git_parse_maybe_bool`:: +Same as `git_config_bool`, except that it returns -1 on error rather +than dying. + +`git_config_string`:: +Allocates and copies the value string into the `dest` parameter; if no +string is given, prints an error message and returns -1. + +`git_config_pathname`:: +Similar to `git_config_string`, but expands `~` or `~user` into the +user's home directory when found at the beginning of the path. + +Include Directives +------------------ + +By default, the config parser does not respect include directives. +However, a caller can use the special `git_config_include` wrapper +callback to support them. To do so, you simply wrap your "real" callback +function and data pointer in a `struct config_include_data`, and pass +the wrapper to the regular config-reading functions. For example: + +------------------------------------------- +int read_file_with_include(const char *file, config_fn_t fn, void *data) +{ + struct config_include_data inc = CONFIG_INCLUDE_INIT; + inc.fn = fn; + inc.data = data; + return git_config_from_file(git_config_include, file, &inc); +} +------------------------------------------- + +`git_config` respects includes automatically. The lower-level +`git_config_from_file` does not. + +Custom Configsets +----------------- + +A `config_set` can be used to construct an in-memory cache for +config-like files that the caller specifies (i.e., files like `.gitmodules`, +`~/.gitconfig` etc.). For example, + +--------------------------------------- +struct config_set gm_config; +git_configset_init(&gm_config); +int b; +/* we add config files to the config_set */ +git_configset_add_file(&gm_config, ".gitmodules"); +git_configset_add_file(&gm_config, ".gitmodules_alt"); + +if (!git_configset_get_bool(gm_config, "submodule.frotz.ignore", &b)) { + /* hack hack hack */ +} + +/* when we are done with the configset */ +git_configset_clear(&gm_config); +---------------------------------------- + +Configset API provides functions for the above mentioned work flow, including: + +`void git_configset_init(struct config_set *cs)`:: + + Initializes the config_set `cs`. + +`int git_configset_add_file(struct config_set *cs, const char *filename)`:: + + Parses the file and adds the variable-value pairs to the `config_set`, + dies if there is an error in parsing the file. Returns 0 on success, or + -1 if the file does not exist or is inaccessible. The user has to decide + if he wants to free the incomplete configset or continue using it when + the function returns -1. + +`int git_configset_get_value(struct config_set *cs, const char *key, const char **value)`:: + + Finds the highest-priority value for the configuration variable `key` + and config set `cs`, stores the pointer to it in `value` and returns 0. + When the configuration variable `key` is not found, returns 1 without + touching `value`. The caller should not free or modify `value`, as it + is owned by the cache. + +`const struct string_list *git_configset_get_value_multi(struct config_set *cs, const char *key)`:: + + Finds and returns the value list, sorted in order of increasing priority + for the configuration variable `key` and config set `cs`. When the + configuration variable `key` is not found, returns NULL. The caller + should not free or modify the returned pointer, as it is owned by the cache. + +`void git_configset_clear(struct config_set *cs)`:: + + Clears `config_set` structure, removes all saved variable-value pairs. + +In addition to above functions, the `config_set` API provides type specific +functions in the vein of `git_config_get_int` and family but with an extra +parameter, pointer to struct `config_set`. +They all behave similarly to the `git_config_get*()` family described in +"Querying For Specific Variables" above. + +Writing Config Files +-------------------- + +Git gives multiple entry points in the Config API to write config values to +files namely `git_config_set_in_file` and `git_config_set`, which write to +a specific config file or to `.git/config` respectively. They both take a +key/value pair as parameter. +In the end they both call `git_config_set_multivar_in_file` which takes four +parameters: + +- the name of the file, as a string, to which key/value pairs will be written. + +- the name of key, as a string. This is in canonical "flat" form: the section, + subsection, and variable segments will be separated by dots, and the section + and variable segments will be all lowercase. + E.g., `core.ignorecase`, `diff.SomeType.textconv`. + +- the value of the variable, as a string. If value is equal to NULL, it will + remove the matching key from the config file. + +- the value regex, as a string. It will disregard key/value pairs where value + does not match. + +- a multi_replace value, as an int. If value is equal to zero, nothing or only + one matching key/value is replaced, else all matching key/values (regardless + how many) are removed, before the new pair is written. + +It returns 0 on success. + +Also, there are functions `git_config_rename_section` and +`git_config_rename_section_in_file` with parameters `old_name` and `new_name` +for renaming or removing sections in the config files. If NULL is passed +through `new_name` parameter, the section will be removed from the config file. |