Re: [PATCH 0/7] Fix some bugs in abspath.c

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 4, 2012, 18:08 UTC
Message-ID: <7va9x5bqz4.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1346746470-23127-1-git-send-email-mhagger@alum.mit.edu>

mhagger@alum.mit.edu writes:

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> From: Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
>
> I really just wanted to tidy up filter_refs(), but I've been sucked
> into a cascade of recursive yak shaving.  This is my first attempt to
> pop the yak stack.

Thanks.

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> Please note that both absolute_path("") and real_path("") used to
> return the current directory followed by a slash.  I believe that this
> was a bug, and that it is more appropriate for both functions to
> reject the empty string.  The evidence is as follows:
>
> * If this were intended behavior, presumably the return value would
>   *not* have a trailing slash.

That is weak. The only thing you can infer from that observation is that the presense or absense of trailing '/' would not make any difference to the caller who wanted a path to the cwd (and is more convenient if the call is made so that a path relative to the cwd is tucked after it).

> * I couldn't find any callers that appeared to depend on the old
>   behavior.

That is a very good argument (especially if the audit were thorough).

I would be tempted to say that we should die() on "" for now, cook the result outside "master" for a few weeks while auditing the callchains, and see if any of them complains.