Re: [PATCH v3 0/6][Outreachy] Introduce os-version Capability with Configurable Options

>
> Christian Couder <christian.couder@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > By the way, if we put the OS information in the "agent" capability,
> > how do we separate it from the existing "package/version" content and
> > make it easy to parse?
>
> Do NOT parse, period.
>
> If three "things" that talk the Git protocol on the other end of the
> connection gives "Linux git/2.48.0", and "macOS libgit2/1.9.0", and
> "Windows git/2.47.1" as their (enhanced) "agent" strings, there is
> no "ah, this one is 1.9.0 which way older than 2.47.1 so it must be
> missing features X and Y" the users of the information are allowed
> to infer.

>
> Just take it as a single opaque string, and group identical ones.
>
> In the above scenario, we found three different kinds now.  Maybe
> we'll accumulate the counts and notice that there are N times as
> many connections whose agent string begins with "Windows" as "Linux"
> and "macOS" combined or something.  That would be an offline
> analysis, and forcing users to do the stats offline would reduce the
> temptation to use it for purposes other than its intended one.
>
> You may find "ImNotTellingYou" and may wonder what OS the user is
> really using, but they do not want to tell you, so you honor their
> wish.
>
> > I don't see a good solution because
> > GIT_USER_AGENT could be used, and the config option to not show the OS
> > name could be used too.
>
> That is a good privacy measure.
>
> > Also we don't know what could be in the "version" part. The doc says
> > that the agent part is typically of the form "package/version" but
> > doesn't require it.
>
> Exactly.  I would think it is a feature, and the way to treat the
> string in line with the philosophy behind that feature is to take it
> as a single opaque thing.
>
>