copy into devcontainer git config --list content instead of ~/.gitconfig

[sauloefo]

Hi folks,

I noticed that when I spin a new devcontainer (in VS Code) the gitconfig file shared with the new container is the one located in my $HOME directory (~/.gitconfig).

However, as most of us (I believe), I use my computer to work not only on the projects of my clients but also on my personal projects and, depending on whose the project I'm working at belongs to, my credentials need to be different.

When developing locally, I handle this in my global .gitconfig where I have a couple of [includeIf: "gitdir:..."] clauses to include the appropriate .gitconfig depending on the folder where the I'm working with project is located at.

The diagram below depicts how my projects are organized in my local computer:

~/
  | .gitconfig
  | projects/
    | my-client-1/
      | .gitconfig
      | project-1a/
        | .devcontainer
      | project-1b/
        | .devcontainer
    | my-client-2/
      | .gitconfig
      | project-2a/
        | .devcontainer
      | project-2b/
        | .devcontainer
    | my-personal-projects/
      | project-a/
        | .devcontainer
      | project-b/
        | .devcontainer

The problem I'm facing is that those more specific .gitconfig files (located under my-client-1 and my-client-2 folders) are ignored so when developing inside the container I only have those settings located in my global .gitconfig.

I was wondering if wouldn't be more helpful if, instead of copying the global config into the container, to copy the result of the git config --list (properly formatted) as the content of the global .gitconfig inside the container.

Does that make sense to anyone else besides me?

At the moment, I have a couple of scripts that:

1. copy the parent gitconfig into a temp folder located inside the project's folder during the initializeCommand hook;
2. copy from the temp folder into the /workspaces/ folder during the postStartCommand hook and;
3. finally, still during the postStartCommand hook, adds to the ~/.gitconfig the include clause to include the /workspaces/.gitconfig

The problem with this approach is that I don't see means to wrap this whole mechanism into a "base" devcontainer image because I rely on the initializeCommand hook to have access to the host file system and copy the parent gitconfig into the project folder. Devcontainer features don't support initializeCommand hook so it isn't an option, unfortunately.

I'm happy to hear any other way deal with this situation if someone has a better approach.

My apologies if this not the right place for this kind of discussion. I'll be glad to move it to a more appropriate place if somebody point me to the right direction.

I wish you all the best.

[bamurtaugh]

Thank you for opening! Looping in @chrmarti for any thoughts.

[chrmarti]

Thanks for the suggestion. Can the output of git config --list --global directly be used as a ~/.gitconfig? We could look into making this available behind a setting.

[sauloefo]

Hi @chrmarti , as far as I was able to investigate unfortunately the output of git config --list --global cannot be dumped into the ~/.gitconfig. Some sort of transformation would be required.
I'll try to reach out git maintenance irc channel and see if somebody has any suggestion about how we could handle this with little effort.