Re: [PATCH v2 7/8] update-ref: support multiple simultaneous updates

From: Brad King <brad.king@kitware.com>
Date: Sep 2, 2013, 17:23 UTC
Message-ID: <5224C990.8070701@kitware.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqbo4eyeps.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

On 08/30/2013 06:51 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 13 quoted lines

> Brad King <brad.king@kitware.com> writes:
>> +With `--stdin`, update-ref reads instructions from standard input and
>> +performs all modifications together.  Empty lines are ignored.
>> +Each non-empty line is parsed as whitespace-separated arguments.
>> +Use single-quotes to enclose whitespace and backslashes and an
>> +unquoted backslash to escape a single quote.
> 
> That is somewhat unusual.
> 
> When we need to deal with arbitrary strings (like pathnames), other
> parts of the system usually give the user two interfaces, --stdin
> with and without -z, and the strings are C-quoted when run without
> the -z option, and terminated with NUL when run with the -z option.

Great, this was the kind of suggestion I was looking for in the original PATCH/RFC cover letter. Thanks. I'll start with the C-quoted version and think about adding -z once we've agreed on that format.

Show 7 quoted lines

>> +Specify updates with
>> +lines of the form:
>> +
>> +	[--no-deref] [--] <ref> <newvalue> [<oldvalue>]
> 
> What is -- doing here?  refs given to update-ref begin with refs/
> (otherwise it is HEAD), no?

The existing update-ref command line can be used to create all kinds of refs, even starting in "-". I didn't want to add any restriction in the stdin format. I'm not opposed to it though.

Thanks, -Brad