[PATCH v7 3/4] alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntax

From

Jonatan Holmgren <jonatan@jontes.page>

Date

Feb 18, 2026, 21:57 UTC

Message-ID

<20260218215737.1181147-4-jonatan@jontes.page>

In-Reply-To

<20260218215737.1181147-1-jonatan@jontes.page>

Add support for arbitrary alias names by using config subsections:

    [alias "förgrena"]
        command = branch

Suggested-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Jonatan Holmgren <jonatan@jontes.page>
---
 Documentation/config/alias.adoc | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 alias.c                         | 38 ++++++++++++++++----
 help.c                          | 14 ++++++--
 t/t0014-alias.sh                | 61 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 145 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/config/alias.adoc b/Documentation/config/alias.adoc
index 80ce17d2de..09a6499249 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/alias.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/config/alias.adoc
@@ -1,12 +1,46 @@
 alias.*::
-	Command aliases for the linkgit:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
-	after defining `alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD`, the invocation
-	`git last` is equivalent to `git cat-file commit HEAD`. To avoid
-	confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
-	hide existing Git commands are ignored except for deprecated
-	commands.  Arguments are split by
-	spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping are supported.
-	A quote pair or a backslash can be used to quote them.
+alias.*.command::
+	Command aliases for the linkgit:git[1] command wrapper. Aliases
+	can be defined using two syntaxes:
++
+--
+1. Without a subsection, e.g., `[alias] co = checkout`. The alias
+   name ("co" in this example) is 
+   limited to ASCII alphanumeric characters and `-`,
+   and is matched case-insensitively.
+2. With a subsection, e.g., `[alias "co"] command = checkout`. The
+   alias name can contain any characters (except for newlines and NUL bytes), 
+   including UTF-8, and is matched case-sensitively as raw bytes.
+   You define the action of the alias in the `command`.
+--
++
+Examples:
++
+----
+# Without subsection (ASCII alphanumeric and dash only)
+[alias]
+    co = checkout
+    st = status
+
+# With subsection (allows any characters, including UTF-8)
+[alias "hämta"]
+    command = fetch
+[alias "rätta till"]
+    command = commit --amend
+----
++
+With a Git alias defined, e.g.,
+
+    $ git config --global alias.last "cat-file commit HEAD"
+    # Which is equivalent to
+    $ git config --global alias.last.command "cat-file commit HEAD"
+
+`git last` is equivalent to `git cat-file commit HEAD`. To avoid
+confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
+hide existing Git commands are ignored except for deprecated
+commands.  Arguments are split by
+spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping are supported.
+A quote pair or a backslash can be used to quote them.
 +
 Note that the first word of an alias does not necessarily have to be a
 command. It can be a command-line option that will be passed into the
diff --git a/alias.c b/alias.c
index 271acb9bf1..0d636278bc 100644
--- a/alias.c
+++ b/alias.c
@@ -13,28 +13,52 @@ struct config_alias_data {
 	struct string_list *list;
 };
 
-static int config_alias_cb(const char *key, const char *value,
+static int config_alias_cb(const char *var, const char *value,
 			   const struct config_context *ctx UNUSED, void *d)
 {
 	struct config_alias_data *data = d;
-	const char *p;
+	const char *subsection, *key;
+	size_t subsection_len;
 
-	if (!skip_prefix(key, "alias.", &p))
+	if (parse_config_key(var, "alias", &subsection, &subsection_len,
+			     &key) < 0)
+		return 0;
+
+	/*
+	 * Two config syntaxes:
+	 * - alias.name = value   (without subsection, case-insensitive)
+	 * - [alias "name"]
+	 *       command = value  (with subsection, case-sensitive)
+	 */
+	if (subsection && strcmp(key, "command"))
 		return 0;
 
 	if (data->alias) {
-		if (!strcasecmp(p, data->alias)) {
+		int match;
+
+		if (subsection)
+			match = (strlen(data->alias) == subsection_len &&
+				 !strncmp(data->alias, subsection,
+					  subsection_len));
+		else
+			match = !strcasecmp(data->alias, key);
+
+		if (match) {
 			FREE_AND_NULL(data->v);
 			return git_config_string(&data->v,
-						 key, value);
+						 var, value);
 		}
 	} else if (data->list) {
 		struct string_list_item *item;
 
 		if (!value)
-			return config_error_nonbool(key);
+			return config_error_nonbool(var);
 
-		item = string_list_append(data->list, p);
+		if (subsection)
+			item = string_list_append_nodup(data->list,
+				xmemdupz(subsection, subsection_len));
+		else
+			item = string_list_append(data->list, key);
 		item->util = xstrdup(value);
 	}
 
diff --git a/help.c b/help.c
index 691af219bf..95f576c5c8 100644
--- a/help.c
+++ b/help.c
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include "fsmonitor-ipc.h"
 #include "repository.h"
 #include "alias.h"
+#include "utf8.h"
 
 #ifndef NO_CURL
 #include "git-curl-compat.h" /* For LIBCURL_VERSION only */
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ static void print_command_list(const struct cmdname_help *cmds,
 
 	for (i = 0; cmds[i].name; i++) {
 		if (cmds[i].category & mask) {
-			size_t len = strlen(cmds[i].name);
+			size_t len = utf8_strwidth(cmds[i].name);
 			printf("   %s   ", cmds[i].name);
 			if (longest > len)
 				mput_char(' ', longest - len);
@@ -492,7 +493,7 @@ static void list_all_cmds_help_aliases(int longest)
 	string_list_sort(&alias_list);
 
 	for (i = 0; i < alias_list.nr; i++) {
-		size_t len = strlen(alias_list.items[i].string);
+		size_t len = utf8_strwidth(alias_list.items[i].string);
 		if (longest < len)
 			longest = len;
 	}
@@ -591,8 +592,15 @@ static int git_unknown_cmd_config(const char *var, const char *value,
 	/* Also use aliases for command lookup */
 	if (!parse_config_key(var, "alias", &subsection, &subsection_len,
 			      &key)) {
-		if (!subsection)
+		if (subsection) {
+			/* [alias "name"] command = value */
+			if (!strcmp(key, "command"))
+				add_cmdname(&cfg->aliases, subsection,
+					    subsection_len);
+		} else {
+			/* alias.name = value */
 			add_cmdname(&cfg->aliases, key, strlen(key));
+		}
 	}
 
 	return 0;
diff --git a/t/t0014-alias.sh b/t/t0014-alias.sh
index a13d2be8ca..34bbdb51c5 100755
--- a/t/t0014-alias.sh
+++ b/t/t0014-alias.sh
@@ -122,4 +122,65 @@ test_expect_success 'alias without value reports error' '
 	test_grep "alias.noval" error
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'subsection syntax works' '
+	test_config alias.testnew.command "!echo ran-subsection" &&
+	git testnew >output &&
+	test_grep "ran-subsection" output
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'subsection syntax only accepts command key' '
+	test_config alias.invalid.notcommand value &&
+	test_must_fail git invalid 2>error &&
+	test_grep -i "not a git command" error
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'subsection syntax requires value for command' '
+	test_when_finished "git config --remove-section alias.noval" &&
+	cat >>.git/config <<-\EOF &&
+	[alias "noval"]
+		command
+	EOF
+	test_must_fail git noval 2>error &&
+	test_grep "alias.noval.command" error
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'simple syntax is case-insensitive' '
+	test_config alias.LegacyCase "!echo ran-legacy" &&
+	git legacycase >output &&
+	test_grep "ran-legacy" output
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'subsection syntax is case-sensitive' '
+	test_config alias.SubCase.command "!echo ran-upper" &&
+	test_config alias.subcase.command "!echo ran-lower" &&
+	git SubCase >upper.out &&
+	git subcase >lower.out &&
+	test_grep "ran-upper" upper.out &&
+	test_grep "ran-lower" lower.out
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'UTF-8 alias with Swedish characters' '
+	test_config alias."förgrena".command "!echo ran-swedish" &&
+	git förgrena >output &&
+	test_grep "ran-swedish" output
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'UTF-8 alias with CJK characters' '
+	test_config alias."分支".command "!echo ran-cjk" &&
+	git 分支 >output &&
+	test_grep "ran-cjk" output
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'alias with spaces in name' '
+	test_config alias."test name".command "!echo ran-spaces" &&
+	git "test name" >output &&
+	test_grep "ran-spaces" output
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'subsection aliases listed in help -a' '
+	test_config alias."förgrena".command "!echo test" &&
+	git help -a >output &&
+	test_grep "förgrena" output
+'
+
 test_done

-- 
2.53.0.122.g3abf75d576