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Re: [RFC] Support UTF-8 characters in Git alias names

From
Ben Knoble <ben.knoble@gmail.com>
Date
Feb 10, 2026, 00:45 UTC
Message-ID
<D96BCAD5-5482-4BD5-B22E-82D34EBC1F0A@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<xmqqecmt33xk.fsf@gitster.g>
Show 38 quoted lines
> 
> Le 9 févr. 2026 à 18:14, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> a écrit :
> 
> "brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> writes:
> 
>>> On 2026-02-09 at 14:55:51, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>>> "brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> writes:
>>> 
>>>> I don't think we have any Unicode normalization code at all in Git,
>>>> though, so if you want a quality implementation, that may be a thing we
>>>> need.
>>> 
>>> Isn't NKC/NKD a macOS-only issue in practice?  Anything on the
>>> command line "git" potty and "git-blah" built-in commands receive
>>> goes through precompose_argv_prefix() to be normalized on that
>>> platform.
>> 
>> Normalization is not a macOS-only issue.  Many accented characters can
>> be written in multiple ways,...
> 
> Yup, but that wasn't what I brought up macOS for.  No sane person
> would write the same string in multiple ways on purpose and
> everybody would want to stick to one, so that byte-for-byte
> comparison can decide paths they created in the filesystem can be
> matched with a list of paths they added in .gitignore, for example.
> And for that everybody uses normalization form C, no?
> 
> But the macOS makes it harder to stick to a single way when it
> involves filesystem entities; the pathname you gave to a new file
> with your creat/open(2) may be normalized in macOS specific way when
> it comes back from readdir(2).  Ahd for that glitch, we massage the
> strings we got from the command line and readdir(), which are in the
> normalization form D, into normalization form C.
> 
> I think the suggestion here is to assume that the users are doing
> the right thing and treat alias names (which eventually end up being
> pathname components) as bytes, and everything should be happy, even
> on macOS.
In what way do alias names end up being pathname components? Or did you mean to insert « treated like » (as in, normalized as command arguments)?
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 9 of 88 in “[RFC] Support UTF-8 characters in Git alias names”
  1. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 8, 2026
  2. D. Ben KnobleFeb 8, 2026
  3. brian m. carlsonFeb 8, 2026
  4. Junio C HamanoFeb 9, 2026
  5. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 9, 2026
  6. Junio C HamanoFeb 9, 2026
  7. brian m. carlsonFeb 9, 2026
  8. Junio C HamanoFeb 9, 2026
  9. Ben KnobleFeb 10, 2026
  10. Junio C HamanoFeb 10, 2026
  11. Jeff KingFeb 10, 2026
  12. Jeff KingFeb 9, 2026
  13. Theodore TsoFeb 9, 2026
  14. alias: support UTF-8 characters via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 9, 2026
  15. Jeff KingFeb 10, 2026
  16. Torsten BögershausenFeb 10, 2026
  17. Junio C HamanoFeb 10, 2026
  18. 0/2 support UTF-8 in alias namesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  19. 1/2 help: use list_aliases() for alias listing and lookupJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  20. Junio C HamanoFeb 10, 2026
  21. 2/2 alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  22. Junio C HamanoFeb 10, 2026
  23. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 10, 2026
  24. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 23, 2026
  25. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 23, 2026
  26. Junio C HamanoFeb 23, 2026
  27. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 23, 2026
  28. Patrick SteinhardtFeb 24, 2026
  29. 0/3 support UTF-8 in alias namesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  30. 1/3 help: use list_aliases() for alias listingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  31. Junio C HamanoFeb 10, 2026
  32. 2/3 alias: prepare for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  33. 3/3 alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 10, 2026
  34. 0/3 support UTF-8 in alias namesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 11, 2026
  35. 2/3 alias: prepare for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 11, 2026
  36. Junio C HamanoFeb 11, 2026
  37. 1/3 help: use list_aliases() for alias listingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 11, 2026
  38. Junio C HamanoFeb 11, 2026
  39. 3/3 alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 11, 2026
  40. Junio C HamanoFeb 11, 2026
  41. Richard KerryFeb 12, 2026
  42. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 12, 2026
  43. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 12, 2026
  44. Torsten BögershausenFeb 12, 2026
  45. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 12, 2026
  46. 0/4 support uTF-8 in alias namesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 16, 2026
  47. 4/4 completion: fix zsh alias listing for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 16, 2026
  48. D. Ben KnobleFeb 16, 2026
  49. Junio C HamanoFeb 17, 2026
  50. 2/4 alias: prepare for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 16, 2026
  51. 1/4 help: use list_aliases() for alias listingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 16, 2026
  52. 3/4 alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 16, 2026
  53. 0/4 support UTF-8 in alias namesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  54. 2/4 alias: prepare for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  55. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 18, 2026
  56. 1/4 help: use list_aliases() for alias listingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  57. 4/4 completion: fix zsh alias listing for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  58. 3/4 alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  59. 0/4 support UTF-8 in alias namesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  60. 1/4 help: use list_aliases() for alias listingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  61. Jacob KellerFeb 24, 2026
  62. Junio C HamanoFeb 24, 2026
  63. Junio C HamanoFeb 25, 2026
  64. Jacob KellerFeb 26, 2026
  65. Jacob KellerFeb 24, 2026
  66. 2/4 alias: prepare for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  67. 3/4 alias: support non-alphanumeric names via subsection syntaxJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  68. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 24, 2026
  69. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 24, 2026
  70. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 24, 2026
  71. 4/4 completion: fix zsh alias listing for subsection aliasesJonatan Holmgren, Feb 18, 2026
  72. Junio C HamanoFeb 19, 2026
  73. Jonatan HolmgrenFeb 19, 2026
  74. 0/2 Fix small issues in alias subsection handlingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 24, 2026
  75. 1/2 doc: fix list continuation in alias subsection exampleJonatan Holmgren, Feb 24, 2026
  76. Junio C HamanoFeb 24, 2026
  77. Kristoffer HaugsbakkFeb 24, 2026
  78. Junio C HamanoFeb 24, 2026
  79. 2/2 alias: treat empty subsection [alias ""] as plain [alias]Jonatan Holmgren, Feb 24, 2026
  80. Junio C HamanoFeb 26, 2026
  81. 0/3 Fix small issues in alias subsection handlingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 26, 2026
  82. 2/3 alias: treat empty subsection [alias ""] as plain [alias]Jonatan Holmgren, Feb 26, 2026
  83. 1/3 doc: fix list continuation in alias subsection exampleJonatan Holmgren, Feb 26, 2026
  84. Kristoffer HaugsbakkMar 3, 2026
  85. Jonatan HolmgrenMar 3, 2026
  86. 3/3 git, help: fix memory leaks in alias listingJonatan Holmgren, Feb 26, 2026
  87. Junio C HamanoFeb 26, 2026
  88. doc: fix list continuation in alias.adocJonatan Holmgren, Mar 3, 2026

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