Re: [PATCH v5] git-send-email: use ! to indicate relative path to command

From: Gregory Anders <greg@gpanders.com>
To: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Cc: "brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>,
	git@vger.kernel.org, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v5] git-send-email: use ! to indicate relative path to command
Date: Tue, 11 May 2021 18:45:58 -0600	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <YJslRhzOmSwD7V2E@gpanders.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <YJsi1jbtNFDRKXmq@coredump.intra.peff.net>

On Tue, 11 May 2021 20:35 -0400, Jeff King wrote:
>On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 12:00:51AM +0000, brian m. carlson wrote:
>
>> > +	specify a sendmail-like program instead, either by a full
>> > +	path-name or by prefixing the program name with `!`.  The
>> > +	program must support the `-i` option.  Default value can be
>> > +	specified by the `sendemail.smtpServer` configuration option;
>> > +	the built-in default is to search for `sendmail` in `/usr/sbin`,
>> > +	`/usr/lib` and $PATH if such program is available, falling back
>> > +	to `localhost` otherwise.
>>
>> Elsewhere we use the ! syntax we invoke the shell, and I would suggest
>> that we do the same here.  That means we'll get PATH functionality by
>> default and we'll let people do a modicum of scripting if they like.
>
>Thanks for bringing that up. I agree it makes things more consistent
>with other uses of "!", and certainly it's more flexible. It does
>introduce an inconsistency with the absolute-path form, as I mentioned
>in https://lore.kernel.org/git/YJsiKDNbKclFU00b@coredump.intra.peff.net/.
>
>I don't know if that's a show-stopper or not. Certainly the
>documentation can explain the difference, but it's nice to keep the
>rules as simple as possible.
>
>(My gut feeling is that consistency with other "!" places is more
>important than consistency with the absolute-path form).
>
>-Peff

We already have sendemail.smtpServerOption to add options:

     [sendemail]
             smtpServer = !msmtp
             smtpServerOption = -f
             smtpServerOption = greg@gpanders.com

I agree that it's not the prettiest and it's a little annoying to have 
to specify the option multiple times, but I thought it worth mentioning 
before considering another way to do the same thing.

I also am curious what other's thoughts are on Felipe's suggestion to 
add a sendemail.program option, which would altogether remove the need 
to further overload sendemail.smtpServer: 
https://lore.kernel.org/git/609b0017a323b_6064920888@natae.notmuch/

IMO if we want to add the capability to run an arbitrary shell command 
as the smtpServer, this makes more sense to add as a dedicated 
sendemail.program option that has that functionality baked right in:

     [sendemail]
             program = "msmtp -f greg@gpanders.com"