[darcs-users] Suggestion: remind user of DARCS_EMAIL

[Mark Stosberg]

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:59:45 +0000
Ashley Moran <ashley.moran at patchspace.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi
> 
> This bugged me for ages until I googled for it and found there was an  
> answer.  Every time you record the first patch in a repo, it asks you  
> for your email address:
> 
> % darcs record
> Darcs needs to know what name (conventionally an email address) to use  
> as the
> patch author, e.g. 'Fred Bloggs <fred at bloggs.invalid>'.  If you  
> provide one
> now it will be stored in the file '_darcs/prefs/author' and used as a  
> default
> in the future.  To change your preferred author address, simply delete  
> or edit
> this file.
> 
> I think it would be useful to point out you can set the DARCS_EMAIL  
> environment variable in this explanation.  It'd be a very easy way of  
> improving the usability of making many branches to new users.  And  
> people like me that didn't realise there was a solution!

I agree with promoting this better, but for a different reason.

In our work flow, sometimes different people work in the same copy of
a repo at different times.

Unless we all have DARCS_EMAIL set, someone (often a less technical
designer) will get prompted for their e-mail, so that
_darcs/prefs/author gets set.

The next thing we know, someone else records a patch, but now it appears
to come from the first person, because _darcs/prefs/author overrides
what's in the environment. Then we have a patch with the wrong
attribution.

    Mark