git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

[PATCH 1/3] config.txt: describe whitespace characters further and more accurately

From
DSDragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org>
Date
Mar 12, 2024, 15:55 UTC
Message-ID
<1c670101fc29a9ccc71cf4d213545a564e14aa05.1710258538.git.dsimic@manjaro.org>
In-Reply-To
<cover.1710258538.git.dsimic@manjaro.org>

Make it more clear what the whitespace characters are in the context of git configuration, improve the description of the trailing whitespace handling, and correct the description of the value-internal whitespace handling.

Signed-off-by: Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org>
---
 Documentation/config.txt | 19 +++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 782c2bab906c..4480bb44203b 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -22,9 +22,10 @@ multivalued.
 Syntax
 ~~~~~~
 
-The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
-ignored.  The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
-blank lines are ignored.
+The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive.  Whitespace characters,
+which in this context are the space character (SP) and the horizontal
+tabulation (HT), are mostly ignored.  The '#' and ';' characters begin
+comments to the end of line.  Blank lines are ignored.
 
 The file consists of sections and variables.  A section begins with
 the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
@@ -64,12 +65,14 @@ The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters
 and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.
 
 A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by
-ending it with a `\`; the backslash and the end-of-line are
-stripped.  Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the
+ending it with a `\`; the backslash and the end-of-line are stripped.
+Leading whitespace characters after 'name =', the remainder of the
 line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing
-whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in
-double quotes.  Internal whitespaces within the value are retained
-verbatim.
+whitespace characters of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed
+in double quotes.  This discarding of the trailing whitespace characters
+also applies after the remainder of the line after the comment character
+is discarded.  Any number of internal whitespace characters found within
+the value are converted to the same number of space (SP) characters.
 
 Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters
 must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`.
Previous: Dragan SimicNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 7 of 14 in “Improve the documentation and test coverage for whitespace and comments”
  1. 0/3 Improve the documentation and test coverage for whitespace and commentsDragan Simic, Mar 12, 2024
  2. 2/3 config.txt: perform some minor reformattingDragan Simic, Mar 12, 2024
  3. Junio C HamanoMar 14, 2024
  4. Dragan SimicMar 14, 2024
  5. Junio C HamanoMar 14, 2024
  6. Dragan SimicMar 14, 2024
  7. 1/3 config.txt: describe whitespace characters further and more accuratelyDragan Simic, Mar 12, 2024
  8. Junio C HamanoMar 14, 2024
  9. Dragan SimicMar 14, 2024
  10. Junio C HamanoMar 14, 2024
  11. Dragan SimicMar 14, 2024
  12. 3/3 t1300: add tests for internal whitespace and inline commentsDragan Simic, Mar 12, 2024
  13. Junio C HamanoMar 14, 2024
  14. Dragan SimicMar 14, 2024

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.