Re: [PATCH] sh-setup: work around "unset IFS" bug in some shells

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 7, 2012, 22:58 UTC
Message-ID: <7v624dfp1e.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <m2fw3h8oja.fsf@igel.home>

Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org> writes:

Show 9 quoted lines

> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
>
>> +# Similarly for IFS, but some shells (e.g. FreeBSD 7.2) are buggy and
>> +# do not equate an unset IFS with IFS with the default, so here is
>> +# an explicit SP HT LF.
>> +IFS=' 	
>> +'
>
> Trailing whitespace can easily get lost

The comment above the assingment spell the character names out for that exact reason. Honestly, I think

> IFS=' ''	''
> '

is a lot harder to read. If we were writing in bash, we would probably use $' \t\n' but because we aren't, the best you can do with your approach is what you wrote, but it would make the reader wonder what these empty '' are there for and how many spaces are in between the ''<string here>'' pair.

In other words, I agree with your concerns, but I do not think your rewrite helps very much.