"First-Time Git Setup" docs about .gitconfig are incorrect as of Git For Windows v2.24

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
68/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
git
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Open the Getting Started—First-Time Git Setup page and locate the paragraph describing Windows .gitconfig paths; then find the matching text in the Pro Git source. Update it to reflect the current Git for Windows system config location, or clearly scope the older-version path, and verify the generated page no longer gives outdated guidance.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug
There's no existing/similar bug report.
  • I have searched the existing issues
This report is about a single actionable bug.
  • I'm reporting a single actionable bug
This report is about the ProGit book, version 2, English language.
  • This bug is not about a translation or old version
Bug covers book website/pdf
  • I confirm the bug is about the book as found on the website/pdf
Problem is present in the Pro Git book on the website?
  • This bug also affects the Pro Git book as published on the website.
Which version of the book is affected?

Source files

Describe the bug:

On this page, there is the following paragraph (emphasis mine):

On Windows systems, Git looks for the .gitconfig file in the $HOME directory (C:\Users\$USER for most people). It also still looks for [path]/etc/gitconfig, although it’s relative to the MSys root, which is wherever you decide to install Git on your Windows system when you run the installer. If you are using version 2.x or later of Git for Windows, there is also a system-level config file at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Git\config on Windows XP, and in C:\ProgramData\Git\config on Windows Vista and newer. This config file can only be changed by git config -f <file> as an admin.

As of git-for-windows/git#2358, this is incorrect. As described in the release notes:

Note! As a consequence of making git config --system work as expected, the location of the system config is now C:\Program Files\Git\etc\gitconfig (no longer split between C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\etc\gitconfig and C:\ProgramData\Git\config), and likewise the location of the system gitattributes is now C:\Program Files\Git\etc\gitattributes (no longer C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\etc\gitattributes). Any manual modifications to C:\ProgramData\Git\config need to be ported manually.

Steps to reproduce:
  1. Go to https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-First-Time-Git-Setup
  2. Read text :)
Expected behavior:

I think we could change this to say something like:

On Windows systems, Git looks for the global .gitconfig file in the %USERPROFILE% directory (C:\Users\%USERNAME% for most people). It also looks for the system config file at [path]/etc/gitconfig, where [path] is wherever Git was installed on your system. If you are using Git for Windows version between v2.0.0 and v2.23.0, there is also a secondary system-level config file at %PROGRAMDATA%\Git\config (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Git\config on Windows XP, or C:\ProgramData\Git\config on Windows Vista and newer). This config file can only be changed by git config -f <file> as an admin.

Or we could simply ignore versions of GFW that are 2+ years old:

On Windows systems, Git looks for the global .gitconfig file in the %USERPROFILE% directory (C:\Users\%USERNAME% for most people). It also looks for the system config file at [path]/etc/gitconfig, where [path] is wherever Git was installed on your system.

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