git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

Re: [PATCH] git-jump: make `diff` work with filenames containing spaces

From
D. Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date
Aug 9, 2025, 14:44 UTC
Message-ID
<CALnO6CDnSXpUVQEUJr=dc1ZY6errSv2M=4EmeaOmfDvcifHvnA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<pull.1950.git.1754674979929.gitgitgadget@gmail.com>

On Fri, Aug 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM Greg Hurrell via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 22 quoted lines
>
> From: Greg Hurrell <greg.hurrell@datadoghq.com>
>
> In diff.c, we output a trailing "\t" at the end of any filename that
> contains a space:
>
>     case DIFF_SYMBOL_FILEPAIR_PLUS:
>             meta = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_METAINFO);
>             reset = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_RESET);
>             fprintf(o->file, "%s%s+++ %s%s%s\n", diff_line_prefix(o), meta,
>                     line, reset,
>                     strchr(line, ' ') ? "\t" : "");
>             break;
>
> That is, for a file "foo.txt" we'll emit:
>
>     +++ a/foo.txt
>
> but for "foo bar.txt" we'll emit:
>
>     +++ a/foo bar.txt\t
>

A little spelunking dates this back to 1a9eb3b9d5 (git-diff/git-apply: make diff output a bit friendlier to GNU patch (part 2), 2006-09-22), so we may be stuck with it :/

Show 6 quoted lines
> This in turn leads us to produce a quickfix format like this:
>
>     foo bar.txt\t:1:1:contents
>
> Because no "foo bar.txt\t" file actually exists on disk, opening it in
> Vim will just land the user in an empty buffer.
I can reproduce this with
    echo 1 >'a b' && git add --intent-to-add a?b && git jump diff
Show 13 quoted lines
>
> This commit takes the simple approach of unconditionally stripping any
> trailing tab. Consider the following three examples:
>
> 1. For file "foo bar", Git will emit "foo bar\t".
> 2. For file "foo\t", Git will emit "foo\t".
> 3. For file "foo bar\t", Git will emit "foo bar\t\t".
>
> Before this commit, `git-jump` correctly handled only case "2".
>
> After this commit, `git-jump` correctly handles cases "1" and "3". In
> reality, "1" is the only case people are going to run into with any
> regularity, and the other two are extreme edge cases.

So we drop support for case 2? Hm. I personally try to avoid this situation anyway, but it would be nice if we could just do the right thing here. Or maybe we should consider trying to parse --patch-with-raw output for the filenames?

Show 36 quoted lines
>
> The argument here is that stripping the "\t" unconditionally gives us a
> minimal change, and it addresses the common case without bringing in
> complexity for the uncommon ones. If anybody ever complains about case
> "2" no longer working for them, we can do the more complicated thing and
> only strip the "\t" if the filename contains a space.
>
> Signed-off-by: Greg Hurrell <greg.hurrell@datadoghq.com>
> ---
>     git-jump: make diff work with filenames containing spaces
>
> Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-1950%2Fwincent%2Fstrip-trailing-tab-v1
> Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-1950/wincent/strip-trailing-tab-v1
> Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/1950
>
>  contrib/git-jump/git-jump | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/contrib/git-jump/git-jump b/contrib/git-jump/git-jump
> index 3f696759617..8d1d5d79a69 100755
> --- a/contrib/git-jump/git-jump
> +++ b/contrib/git-jump/git-jump
> @@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ open_editor() {
>  mode_diff() {
>         git diff --no-prefix --relative "$@" |
>         perl -ne '
> -       if (m{^\+\+\+ (.*)}) { $file = $1 eq "/dev/null" ? undef : $1; next }
> +       if (m{^\+\+\+ (.*?)\t?$}) { $file = $1 eq "/dev/null" ? undef : $1; next }
>         defined($file) or next;
>         if (m/^@@ .*?\+(\d+)/) { $line = $1; next }
>         defined($line) or next;
>
> base-commit: 2c2ba49d55ff26c1082b8137b1ec5eeccb4337d1
> --
> gitgitgadget
>

This fix works as claimed and drops case (2) above, as discussed, so if we don't keep support for that then this looks right to me.

-- 
D. Ben Knoble
Previous: Greg Hurrell via GitGitGadgetNext: Phillip Wood
Message 2 of 11 in “git-jump: make `diff` work with filenames containing spaces”
  1. git-jump: make `diff` work with filenames containing spacesGreg Hurrell via GitGitGadget, Aug 8, 2025
  2. D. Ben KnobleAug 9, 2025
  3. Phillip WoodAug 10, 2025
  4. Phillip WoodAug 10, 2025
  5. Jeff KingAug 14, 2025
  6. Phillip WoodAug 15, 2025
  7. Junio C HamanoAug 10, 2025
  8. git-jump: make `diff` work with filenames containing spacesGreg Hurrell via GitGitGadget, Aug 11, 2025
  9. Phillip WoodAug 11, 2025
  10. D. Ben KnobleAug 11, 2025
  11. Jeff KingAug 14, 2025

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.