Re: [PATCH v2 7/8] git-p4: decode p4 wildcard characters

> gitster@pobox.com wrote on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:32 -0800:
>> Pete Wyckoff <pw@padd.com> writes:
>>
>> > There are four wildcard characters in p4.  Files with these
>> > characters can be added to p4 repos using the "-f" option.
>> > They are stored in %xx notation, and when checked out, p4
>> > converts them back to normal.
>> >
>> > This patch does the same thing when importing into git,
>> > converting the four special characters.  Without this change,
>> > the files appear with literal %xx in their names.
>> >
>> > Be careful not to produce "*" in filenames on windows.  That
>> > will fail.
>>
>> > +    # P4 wildcards are not allowed in filenames.  P4 complains
>> > +    # if you simply add them, but you can force it with "-f", in
>> > +    # which case it translates them into %xx encoding internally.
>> > +    # Search for and fix just these four characters.  Do % last so
>> > +    # that fixing it does not inadvertently create new %-escapes.
>> > +    #
>> > +    def wildcard_decode(self, path):
>> > +        # Cannot have * in a filename in windows; untested as to
>> > +        # what p4 would do in such a case.
>> > +        if not self.isWindows:
>> > +            path = path.replace("%2A", "*")
>>
>> I'll queue the patch as-is, but perhaps we can ask for help from people
>> who have access to P4 on both non-Windows and Windows to run a small test
>> to determine what happens in the native client?
>>
>>  1. On a non-Windows client, add a path with '*' in it to the depot;
>>     perhaps "p4 add" might fail at this point, in which case we don't
>>     need to worry about this issue at all.
>>
>>  2. Create a p4 client on Windows against that depot, and sync it; unless
>>     the previous step failed, we will see what happens (I would imagine it
>>     either dies or mangles the pathname and warns), so that we have
>>     something to emulate.
>>
>> and then the quoted part can be further refined in a separate patch later.
>
> I tried this myself in a VM when Tor Arvid pointed out the
> problem with Windows:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/166374
>
> 1.  "*" is acceptable in filenames, but users must use "p4 add -f"
>    to indicate that they really want that wildcard character in
>    the filename.
>
> 2.  Windows clients fail to create the file in "p4 sync".  The
>    error is:
>
>    open for write: c:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\file*star:
>    The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
>
> The behavior for git-p4 I chose is to sync the file but leave
> the name with its encoded %2A.  If we think it is better to
> duplicate p4's failure, we can simply try to create the file
> and let the OS produce the same error message.