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

[PATCH v2 01/16] config: forbid newline as core.commentChar

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
Mar 12, 2024, 09:17 UTC
Message-ID
<20240312091706.GA95609@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<20240312091013.GA95442@coredump.intra.peff.net>

Since we usually look for a comment char while parsing line-oriented files, setting core.commentChar to a single newline can confuse our code quite a bit. For example, using it with "git commit" causes us to fail to recognize any of the template as comments, including it in the config message. Which kind of makes sense, since the template content is on its own line (so no line can "start" with a newline). In other spots I would not be surprised if you can create more mischief (e.g., violating loop assumptions) but I didn't dig into it.

Since comment characters are a local preference, to some degree this is a case of "if it hurts, don't do it". But given that this would be a silly and pointless thing to do, and that it makes it harder to reason about code parsing comment lines, let's just forbid it.

There are other cases that are perhaps questionable (e.g., setting the comment char to a single space), but they seem to behave reasonably (at least a simple "git commit" will correctly identify and strip the template lines). So I haven't worried about going on a hunt for every stupid thing a user might do to themselves, and just focused on the most confusing case.

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
In the string version I suppose you could set it to "\nexec rm -rf /" if
you really wanted to treat yourself to a fun "git rebase". Again, this
is all local, but it's perhaps nice to know that core.commentChar is not
a vector for arbitrary code execution.

(That of course made me wonder if setting it to just "exec rm -rf / " would work, as the rest of the template line would be ignored by "rm"; but that is self-defeating as we'd recognize the line as a comment and remove it).

 config.c              | 2 ++
 t/t0030-stripspace.sh | 5 +++++
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+)
diff --git a/config.c b/config.c
index 3cfeb3d8bd..f561631374 100644
--- a/config.c
+++ b/config.c
@@ -1566,6 +1566,8 @@ static int git_default_core_config(const char *var, const char *value,
 		else if (!strcasecmp(value, "auto"))
 			auto_comment_line_char = 1;
 		else if (value[0] && !value[1]) {
+			if (value[0] == '\n')
+				return error(_("core.commentChar cannot be newline"));
 			comment_line_char = value[0];
 			auto_comment_line_char = 0;
 		} else
diff --git a/t/t0030-stripspace.sh b/t/t0030-stripspace.sh
index d1b3be8725..e399dd9189 100755
--- a/t/t0030-stripspace.sh
+++ b/t/t0030-stripspace.sh
@@ -401,6 +401,11 @@ test_expect_success 'strip comments with changed comment char' '
 	test -z "$(echo "; comment" | git -c core.commentchar=";" stripspace -s)"
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'newline as commentchar is forbidden' '
+	test_must_fail git -c core.commentChar="$LF" stripspace -s 2>err &&
+	grep "core.commentChar cannot be newline" err
+'
+
 test_expect_success '-c with single line' '
 	printf "# foo\n" >expect &&
 	printf "foo" | git stripspace -c >actual &&
-- 
2.44.0.481.gf1a6d20963
Previous: Jeff KingNext: Jeff King
Message 45 of 82 in “Clarify the meaning of "character" in the documentation”
  1. Manlio PerilloMar 5, 2024
  2. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 5, 2024
  3. Junio C HamanoMar 5, 2024
  4. Dragan SimicMar 5, 2024
  5. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 5, 2024
  6. Dragan SimicMar 5, 2024
  7. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 5, 2024
  8. Dragan SimicMar 5, 2024
  9. Junio C HamanoMar 5, 2024
  10. Dragan SimicMar 5, 2024
  11. multi-byte core.commentCharJeff King, Mar 6, 2024
  12. 0/15 allow multi-byte core.commentCharJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  13. 01/15 strbuf: simplify comment-handling in add_lines() helperJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  14. 02/15 strbuf: avoid static variables in strbuf_add_commented_lines()Jeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  15. 03/15 commit: refactor base-case of adjust_comment_line_char()Jeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  16. 04/15 strbuf: avoid shadowing global comment_line_char nameJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  17. 05/15 environment: store comment_line_char as a stringJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  18. 06/15 strbuf: accept a comment string for strbuf_stripspace()Jeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  19. Jeff KingMar 7, 2024
  20. 07/15 strbuf: accept a comment string for strbuf_commented_addf()Jeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  21. 08/15 strbuf: accept a comment string for strbuf_add_commented_lines()Jeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  22. 09/15 prefer comment_line_str to comment_line_char for printingJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  23. 10/15 find multi-byte comment chars in NUL-terminated stringsJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  24. 11/15 find multi-byte comment chars in unterminated buffersJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  25. Jeff KingMar 7, 2024
  26. René ScharfeMar 7, 2024
  27. René ScharfeMar 7, 2024
  28. René ScharfeMar 7, 2024
  29. Phillip WoodMar 8, 2024
  30. Junio C HamanoMar 8, 2024
  31. Phillip WoodMar 8, 2024
  32. Jeff KingMar 12, 2024
  33. phillip.wood123@gmail.comMar 12, 2024
  34. Jeff KingMar 13, 2024
  35. Jeff KingMar 12, 2024
  36. René ScharfeMar 14, 2024
  37. 12/15 sequencer: handle multi-byte comment characters when writing todo listJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  38. Phillip WoodMar 8, 2024
  39. Jeff KingMar 12, 2024
  40. 13/15 wt-status: drop custom comment-char stringificationJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  41. 14/15 environment: drop comment_line_char compatibility macroJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  42. 15/15 config: allow multi-byte core.commentCharJeff King, Mar 7, 2024
  43. Phillip WoodMar 8, 2024
  44. 0/16 allow multi-byte core.commentCharJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  45. 01/16 config: forbid newline as core.commentCharJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  46. 02/16 strbuf: simplify comment-handling in add_lines() helperJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  47. 03/16 strbuf: avoid static variables in strbuf_add_commented_lines()Jeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  48. 04/16 commit: refactor base-case of adjust_comment_line_char()Jeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  49. 05/16 strbuf: avoid shadowing global comment_line_char nameJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  50. 06/16 environment: store comment_line_char as a stringJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  51. 07/16 strbuf: accept a comment string for strbuf_stripspace()Jeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  52. 08/16 strbuf: accept a comment string for strbuf_commented_addf()Jeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  53. 09/16 strbuf: accept a comment string for strbuf_add_commented_lines()Jeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  54. 10/16 prefer comment_line_str to comment_line_char for printingJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  55. 11/16 find multi-byte comment chars in NUL-terminated stringsJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  56. 12/16 find multi-byte comment chars in unterminated buffersJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  57. 13/16 sequencer: handle multi-byte comment characters when writing todo listJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  58. 14/16 wt-status: drop custom comment-char stringificationJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  59. 15/16 environment: drop comment_line_char compatibility macroJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  60. 16/16 config: allow multi-byte core.commentCharJeff King, Mar 12, 2024
  61. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 13, 2024
  62. Junio C HamanoMar 13, 2024
  63. Jeff KingMar 15, 2024
  64. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 15, 2024
  65. Jeff KingMar 15, 2024
  66. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 15, 2024
  67. Junio C HamanoMar 15, 2024
  68. Jeff KingMar 16, 2024
  69. Junio C HamanoMar 26, 2024
  70. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 26, 2024
  71. Jeff KingMar 27, 2024
  72. 17/16 config: add core.commentStringJeff King, Mar 27, 2024
  73. Chris TorekMar 27, 2024
  74. Junio C HamanoMar 27, 2024
  75. Jeff KingMar 28, 2024
  76. Junio C HamanoMar 27, 2024
  77. phillip.wood123@gmail.comMar 12, 2024
  78. Junio C HamanoMar 12, 2024
  79. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 5, 2024
  80. Junio C HamanoMar 5, 2024
  81. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 5, 2024
  82. brian m. carlsonMar 5, 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.