Merge branch 'maint'

[git.git] / Documentation / config.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index abeb82b2c6d40e8557f7a5f8ad4c5e98b3a26a62..c081657be774a70b453f493be11fbfb670452e86 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ The configuration variables are used by both the git plumbing
 and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, wherein
 the fully qualified variable name of the variable itself is the last
 dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
-dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
-characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
+dot. The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric
+characters and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.  Some
+variables may appear multiple times.
 
 Syntax
 ~~~~~~
@@ -54,9 +55,10 @@ All the other lines (and the remainder of the line after the section
 header) are recognized as setting variables, in the form
 'name = value'.  If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line
 is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
-The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
-characters and `-` are allowed.  There can be more than one value
-for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
+The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters
+and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.  There can be more
+than one value for a given variable; we say then that the variable is
+multivalued.
 
 Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
 Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
@@ -84,6 +86,17 @@ customary UNIX fashion.
 
 Some variables may require a special value format.
 
+Includes
+~~~~~~~~
+
+You can include one config file from another by setting the special
+`include.path` variable to the name of the file to be included. The
+included file is expanded immediately, as if its contents had been
+found at the location of the include directive. If the value of the
+`include.path` variable is a relative path, the path is considered to be
+relative to the configuration file in which the include directive was
+found. See below for examples.
+
 Example
 ~~~~~~~
 
@@ -106,6 +119,10 @@ Example
                gitProxy="ssh" for "kernel.org"
                gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
 
+       [include]
+               path = /path/to/foo.inc ; include by absolute path
+               path = foo ; expand "foo" relative to the current file
+
 Variables
 ~~~~~~~~~
 
@@ -1258,9 +1275,10 @@ help.autocorrect::
        This is the default.
 
 http.proxy::
-       Override the HTTP proxy, normally configured using the 'http_proxy'
-       environment variable (see linkgit:curl[1]).  This can be overridden
-       on a per-remote basis; see remote.<name>.proxy
+       Override the HTTP proxy, normally configured using the 'http_proxy',
+       'https_proxy', and 'all_proxy' environment variables (see
+       `curl(1)`).  This can be overridden on a per-remote basis; see
+       remote.<name>.proxy
 
 http.cookiefile::
        File containing previously stored cookie lines which should be used