git.c: let builtins opt for handling `pager.foo` themselves

Before launching a builtin git foo and unless mechanisms with precedence
are in use, we check for and handle the `pager.foo` config. This is done
without considering exactly how git foo is being used, and indeed, git.c
cannot (and should not) know what the arguments to git foo are supposed
to achieve.

In practice this means that, e.g., `git -c pager.tag tag -a new-tag`
results in errors such as "Vim: Warning: Output is not to a terminal"
and a garbled terminal. Someone who makes use of both `git tag -a` and
`git tag -l` will probably not set `pager.tag`, so that `git tag -a`
will actually work, at the cost of not paging output of `git tag -l`.

To allow individual builtins to make more informed decisions about when
to respect `pager.foo`, introduce a flag DELAY_PAGER_CONFIG. If the flag
is set, do not check `pager.foo`.

Do not check for DELAY_PAGER_CONFIG in `execv_dashed_external()`. That
call site is arguably wrong, although in a way that is not yet visible,
and will be changed in a slightly different direction in a later patch.

Don't add any users of DELAY_PAGER_CONFIG just yet, one will follow in a
later patch.

Suggested-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Martin Ågren <martin.agren@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

2 files changed, 11 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/builtin.h b/builtin.h
index 8d87d06da4..0f3a7b7704 100644
--- a/builtin.h
+++ b/builtin.h
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@
  *
  *	The built-in supports `--super-prefix`.
  *
+ * `DELAY_PAGER_CONFIG`:
+ *
+ *	If RUN_SETUP or RUN_SETUP_GENTLY is set, git.c normally handles
+ *	the `pager.<cmd>`-configuration. If this flag is used, git.c
+ *	will skip that step, instead allowing the built-in to make a
+ *	more informed decision, e.g., by ignoring `pager.<cmd>` for
+ *	certain subcommands.
+ *
  * . Add `builtin/foo.o` to `BUILTIN_OBJS` in `Makefile`.
  *
  * Additionally, if `foo` is a new command, there are 4 more things to do:
diff --git a/git.c b/git.c
index 489aab4d83..79195ebbdf 100644
--- a/git.c
+++ b/git.c
@@ -283,6 +283,7 @@ static int handle_alias(int *argcp, const char ***argv)
  */
 #define NEED_WORK_TREE		(1<<3)
 #define SUPPORT_SUPER_PREFIX	(1<<4)
+#define DELAY_PAGER_CONFIG	(1<<5)
 
 struct cmd_struct {
 	const char *cmd;
@@ -306,7 +307,8 @@ static int run_builtin(struct cmd_struct *p, int argc, const char **argv)
 			prefix = setup_git_directory_gently(&nongit_ok);
 		}
 
-		if (use_pager == -1 && p->option & (RUN_SETUP | RUN_SETUP_GENTLY))
+		if (use_pager == -1 && p->option & (RUN_SETUP | RUN_SETUP_GENTLY) &&
+		    !(p->option & DELAY_PAGER_CONFIG))
 			use_pager = check_pager_config(p->cmd);
 		if (use_pager == -1 && p->option & USE_PAGER)
 			use_pager = 1;