pdulvp.fr

prel.config.json, in place of the prel.* git config keys has been fixed.

See more details at : https://github.com/pdulvp/prel/issues/8

buildCommand, artifacts, plansDir - are read from prel.config.json
at the repository root, a file that can be committed and so travels with the
clone instead of being set once per machine by hand

  • prel config prints them as prel reads them, defaults marked, and reports

what git config could never be checked for: a key prel does not know, a
value of the wrong shape, a prel.* key left over from before the move

  • artifacts takes an array, so one entry is one pattern and a path with a

space in it is finally expressible; a whitespace-separated string still
works. prel release checks the file over before it writes anything

config never reaches for it, and one prel cannot read stops the command
rather than passing for a repository with no settings at all

installed prel reads the file of whatever repository it is run in

prel.config.json, in place of the prel.* git config keys

<sub>2026-10-22-1055-prel-config-json.md — 2026-10-22 10:55</sub>

Goal

The five settings prel invented for itself - versionFile, tagPrefix,
buildCommand, artifacts, plansDir - move out of .git/config and into
prel.config.json at the repository root, a file that can be committed and so
travels with the clone instead of being set once per machine by hand.

{
  "buildCommand": "packaging/build-deb.sh ${version}",
  "artifacts": ["build/prel_${version}_all.deb"]
}

Decisions

include.path and commit.cleanup are git's own settings, read by git
itself or by the configs/.gitconfig-* includes, and stay in git config.

  • A flat object, one key per old prel.<key>, so the move is mechanical and

prel config can name the key a reader already knows.

  • artifacts takes an array, which is what JSON is for; a plain string is

still accepted and split on whitespace, as the git config value was. An
array entry is one path, so a path with a space in it is finally
expressible - the limitation the README had to document.

no prel.config.json never needs it. Where the file is there and jq is
not, prel says so and stops rather than treating the settings as unset -
a release that quietly forgets its artifacts is the failure worth avoiding.

  • No fallback to the old git config keys. A prel.* key still set, with no

prel.config.json beside it, is warned about by name: silence there
would look exactly like a setting that still works.

turns every script into one, so the shared reader may as well be the command
that prints what it read, defaults marked and unknown keys named.

  • Unknown keys and wrong types are reported, not ignored: the key set is known

here, unlike in git config, so a misspelt artefacts can be caught. Checked
by prel config and in the preconditions of prel release, before anything
is written.

it is the configuration of prel-the-repository, and an installed prel reads
the file of whatever repository it is run in. The payload is a whitelist, so
it is already excluded - with an explicit guard so it cannot drift in.

Found on the way

  • The memo on the config read was useless: every reader is called from inside

a command substitution, so the state it set died with the subshell and a
broken file was reported once per setting - six times over for one file.
The readers are silent now and _prel_config_check is the only voice, run
first by each command that is about to believe a setting.

  • An artifacts entry holding a space still did not work on the first pass:

the glob loop expands its pattern unquoted, which is word splitting as well
as pathname expansion, so dist/a b.tar became two names that matched
nothing. IFS='' around the loop leaves the globbing and takes the
splitting away.

Steps

_prel_config_list (an array, or a string split on whitespace),
_prel_config_check (unknown keys, wrong types, stale git config), and
the config command that prints the resolved settings

taking patterns as arguments rather than a spec string, the check in the
preconditions, and every message that said git config prel.x

the hooks run issue-from-plans.sh directly, not through prel.sh

unset prel.buildcommand and prel.artifacts from .git/config

the staged payload, and the comment saying why

  • [x] test: prel config with the file, without it, with an unknown key, two

wrong types, text that is not JSON, JSON that is not an object, an empty
object, a stale git config key, and with jq made unavailable both with a
file to read and without one

same settings as before the move; an artifacts array of two patterns,
one of them holding a space

set, and finds them elsewhere with one set

the release docs replaced, prel config in the command list

archive this file

<sub>Filed by prel from the completed plans at commit time.</sub>