Git, the orthodox way

It would be too much to say that how core Git developers use Git is the correct way. But it is far safer to say that it is the orthodox way.

https://blog.gitbutler.com/how-git-core-devs-configure-git/

The results were very interesting, a rather concise list of 9 config settings and 3 aliases that the experiment participants more or less agreed should arguably be new defaults. Let's just take a look at the proposed config setting changes.

merge.conflictstyle = zdiff3

rebase.autosquash = true

rebase.autostash = true

commit.verbose = true

diff.colorMoved = true

diff.algorithm = histogram

grep.patternType = perl

feature.experimental = true

branch.sort = committerdate

Now, none of these have become the new defaults in the 3 or 4 years since this experiment, but it’s interesting that a lot of the Git developers themselves have a hard time using Git without several of these turned on.

Even more interesting is that most of you probably don’t know what any of these do.