From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2010 04:12:48 GMT
Subject: Re: More git status --porcelain lossage
Message-ID: <20100410041247.GB11977@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <20100409190601.47B37475FEF@snark.thyrsus.com>

On Fri, Apr 09, 2010 at 03:06:01PM -0400, Eric Raymond wrote:

> A format properly designed for script parseability should use even use
> whitespace as a field separator.
> 
> Why?
> 
> Because if you do that, front ends *will* do field analysis using a
> naive split-on-whitespace operation.  And then...someday...someone
> will try to run one of these of these on a volume from a system where
> filenames contain embedded whitespace.  Like Mac OS X or Windows.

Yes, that is why almost every scriptable git interface supports a "-z"
variant with NUL termination.

> Conclusion: As it is presently, git status --porcelain format is
> irretrievably botched.  You need a field separator that's musch less
> likely to land in a filename, like '|' - and to warn in the documentation
> that careful front ends must check for and ignore '\|'.

We already quote correctly, so it is only sloppy parsers that will be in
trouble. Yes, space is more common than "|", but sloppy is sloppy. Parse
it right, or use "-z".

-Peff