NotePlan / NotePlan/plugins

`noteplan-cli plugin:create` fails because of "missing" .gitconfig, and using different email addresses

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Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
204
Forks
82
Avg merge
22h 27m
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

Describe the bug

I wanted to explore plugin development for fun but ran into a issues

noteplan-cli plugin:create
(node:72118) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Error: [git-user-local]: cannot find .gitconfig file on the system`

And additionally

(node:96392) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Error: Couldn't find username for `my.email@domain.com`

(with my.email@domain.com being a placeholder for my actual one)

noteplan-cli implicitly relies on the existence of the $HOME/.gitconfig in two places [3], [4], to then use the extracted email to lookup the Github username. It fails when it can't find the .gitconfig and it fails if it can't find a username.

As far as I can see that username is used at [5] to greet the user and at [6] as a default as plugin author.
Basically

This approach creates some issues for my setup

Technical issue
In my opinion the used git-user-local module has two issues:

  • The file resolution of the used module is not really correct (at least in my case). See [1] It looks under a given path, defaulting to $HOME for a .gitconfig.
  • Furthermore it parses the config file as an ini file, ignoring gitconfig constructs like include and includeIf which in my opinion are often used to switch out usernames and email addresses based on the current working directory.

My git config lives at $HOME/.config/git/config as it makes dot files managment a bit easier and makes my $HOME a lot cleaner. As outlined at [2] that location is a valid "second user-specific configuration file".

"Email" issue
I use different email addresses for projects using the git config includeIf future to switch out my email address and defaulting to my work address when I am not in any git repository. That means noteplan-cli tries to find the Github account based on my work email address which doesn't work.

"Organizational" issue
I might want to just locally experiment on a plugin without having a Github account. Since I think it's only used for [3], and [4] I don't see the hard requirement on it. A fallback on just asking for a name at [4] might be enough.

"Offline" issue
Furthermore I can't create a plugin when I am not online.

Workaround
I can work around it by symlinking ln -s $HOME/.config/git/config $HOME/.gitconfig by I would rather avoid that.

Additionally I have to change my default email address in $HOME/.config/git/config

Solutions space
I wanted to ask what a good approach would be to make it more friendly to different git config structures and "offline" usage. I see these options

  1. Instead of using the git-user-local module call git directly git config --global user.email from within node.
  2. Allow to pass a parameter to noteplan-cli
  3. Don't fail on missing git email address or Github username. Ask when it's needed

I personally would prefer a combination of 1 (addressing the technical downsides of git-user-local and 3 for the email and offline issue.

[1] https://github.com/LasaleFamine/git-user-local/blob/master/src/index.js#L8
[2] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config#Documentation/git-config.txt-XDGCONFIGHOMEgitconfig
[3] https://github.com/NotePlan/plugins/blob/760d4e746b9d9706607ad08bda3cdf1375cc6f39/src/commands/support/plugin-create.js#L22
[4] https://github.com/NotePlan/plugins/blob/760d4e746b9d9706607ad08bda3cdf1375cc6f39/src/commands/PluginCreate.js#L60
[5] https://github.com/NotePlan/plugins/blob/760d4e746b9d9706607ad08bda3cdf1375cc6f39/src/commands/support/plugin-create.js#L25
[6] https://github.com/NotePlan/plugins/blob/760d4e746b9d9706607ad08bda3cdf1375cc6f39/src/commands/support/plugin-create.js#L44

To Reproduce
Have your git config in a XDG_CONFIG_HOME compatible location, or be offline, or don't have a Github account (at this point). Try to create plugin.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with src/commands/support/plugin-create.js and src/commands/PluginCreate.js, then reproduce noteplan-cli plugin:create with an XDG Git configuration, no GitHub account, or no network access. Define the expected behavior for missing Git configuration, project-specific email addresses, unavailable GitHub usernames, and offline use before implementing and testing the chosen approach.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
git, github, javascript, node.js
Domain
cli, developer-experience
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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