Is Git supposed to be usable in an environment where the execution character set is EBCDIC?
I ask because, in browsing the source code (version 2.0.0), I stumbled across three functions
that won't work as presumably intended in an EBCDIC environment (strihash(), memihash(), and
git_user_agent_sanitized()). I can report them as bugs, but if EBCDIC is considered out of
scope, then they aren't bugs.
These three functions can be readily fixed to make them portable across character sets. There may be other spots that are harder to fix.
I have done a lot of grepping and Googling, but I haven't found a clear, authoritative answer
to this question. From searching this mailing list, it appears that nobody is interested in
supporting EBCDIC. However I found one wiki page describing how to run Git on an IBM i, which
is an EBCDIC-based successor to the AS/400 series. See:
http://wsip-174-79-32-155.ph.ph.cox.net/wiki/index.php/PASE/Git
That installation was reportedly running version 1.7.9.4, which I believe predates the
introduction of strihash() and memihash(); I don't know about git_user_agent_sanitized().
Mind you, I'm not advocating for EBCDIC. I escaped from the EBCDIC world about fifteen years
ago, and have no desire to return. I just want to know if character set issues are worth
reporting. The same issues may arise for other, more obscure character sets.
Scott McKellar