How can I temporarily disable an option set in gitconfig for the time of running a command?

[nimser]

The documentation says an option can be enabled at run time using the DELTA_FEATURES environment variable (e.g. git diff HEAD HEAD^1 | DELTA_FEATURES='+side-by-side' delta).
However, say I already have the side-by-side activated in my gitconfig and I want to disable for the time of running that command. How would I do that? I've tried changing + to - like in git diff HEAD HEAD^1 | DELTA_FEATURES='-side-by-side' delta and other things to no avail.

[dandavison]

Hi @nimser, one way is

git -c delta.side-by-side=false <gitsubcommand>

Another way might be to enable it in your gitconfig, not directly using delta.side-by-side, but rather in a feature, and then use DELTA_FEATURES to disable that feature on-demand (let me know if that's not clear). That might not be convenient though if you're using other features.

Do you think there's a role for - to mean subtract a feature? It's not implemented currently but if you think it makes sense do feel free to experiment and open a PR.

[nimser]

Thanks, it works! About the "Another way" perhaps you meant "use DELTA_FEATURES to disable enable that feature on-demand"? Because if I understand there's no way to disable a feature with DELTA_FEATURES?

[dandavison]

Well, if you don't use + then you can use the env var to overwrite the feature list, so you could remove a feature, and if that feature was the way that side-by-side was being activated in your config then it would deactivate side-by-side, right? But, that's not going to be very convenient if we're using multiple features. So I was wondering whether your suggestion of adding - functionality to the env var made sense.

[nimser]

Makes sense now. The - feature would have a use case though your git -c approach satisfies my needs (for now). If I find myself fiddling too much with the env var I'll consider the PR, thanks!