Re: b4: unicode control characters -- warn or remove?

From: Konstantin Ryabitsev <konstantin@linuxfoundation.org>
Date: Nov 1, 2021, 20:22 UTC
Message-ID: <20211101202220.dlcebvckeoz6c26k@meerkat.local>
In-Reply-To: <211101.86bl333als.gmgdl@evledraar.gmail.com>

On Mon, Nov 01, 2021 at 09:02:34PM +0100, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

> It checks whitespace because that's something that's commonly a source
> of patch corruption. I'm not adverse to adding this to core.whitespace,
> but trying to catch malicious injected code seems like a rather big
> expansion of its scope, particularly since:
> 
>     "[...]sending patches for docs actually written in RTL languages[...]"
> 
> Or just code? People write comment and even in their native languages,
> and not all projects are as anglo-centric as those hosted on kernel.org.

My comment about docs was purely within the scope of the Linux kernel.

I think the following would be a sane check:

1. are there unicode control characters (CCs) present?
2. are there other characters from RTL languages present in the same line?

if both 1 && 2 are true, this is a legitimate use of Unicode CCs. If only 1 is true, then it's likely worth a warning.

Maybe even relax #2 to just check for unicode characters above a certain barrier where RTL languages live. I think everyone will agree that if there are unicode CCs and no other unicode characters in that same line, it's likely not a legitimate use of control characters.

-K