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Re: [PATCH 1/4] parse: prefer bool to int for boolean returns

From
Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Date
Dec 4, 2025, 11:23 UTC
Message-ID
<aTFvL1GV76o-tUJL@pks.im>
In-Reply-To
<20251130131441.GA199335@coredump.intra.peff.net>
On Sun, Nov 30, 2025 at 08:14:41AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
> All of the integer parsing functions in parse.[ch] return an int that is
> "0" for failure or "1" for success. Since most of the other functions in
> Git use "0" for success and "-1" for failure, this can be confusing.
> Let's switch the return types to bool to make it clear that we are using
> this other convention. Callers should not need to update at all.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
> ---
> Obviously not strictly necessary for this series, but I think a good
> idea regardless of the rest of it.

Agreed, I think this is a sensible change as it helps guide users. I know that I was confused by the API several times already.

Show 27 quoted lines
> diff --git a/parse.c b/parse.c
> index 48313571aa..f626846def 100644
> --- a/parse.c
> +++ b/parse.c
>  int git_parse_maybe_bool_text(const char *value)
> diff --git a/parse.h b/parse.h
> index ea32de9a91..f80cc5b9fd 100644
> --- a/parse.h
> +++ b/parse.h
> @@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
>  #ifndef PARSE_H
>  #define PARSE_H
>  
> -int git_parse_signed(const char *value, intmax_t *ret, intmax_t max);
> -int git_parse_unsigned(const char *value, uintmax_t *ret, uintmax_t max);
> -int git_parse_ssize_t(const char *, ssize_t *);
> -int git_parse_ulong(const char *, unsigned long *);
> -int git_parse_int(const char *value, int *ret);
> -int git_parse_int64(const char *value, int64_t *ret);
> -int git_parse_double(const char *value, double *ret);
> +bool git_parse_signed(const char *value, intmax_t *ret, intmax_t max);
> +bool git_parse_unsigned(const char *value, uintmax_t *ret, uintmax_t max);
> +bool git_parse_ssize_t(const char *, ssize_t *);
> +bool git_parse_ulong(const char *, unsigned long *);
> +bool git_parse_int(const char *value, int *ret);
> +bool git_parse_int64(const char *value, int64_t *ret);
> +bool git_parse_double(const char *value, double *ret);

Should we maybe add a comment to these functions while at it to document their behaviour?

Patrick
Previous: Jeff KingNext: Jeff King
Message 47 of 64 in “asan bonanza”
  1. 0/9 asan bonanzaJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  2. 1/9 compat/mmap: mark unused argument in git_munmap()Jeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  3. 2/9 pack-bitmap: handle name-hash lookups in incremental bitmapsJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  4. Patrick SteinhardtNov 12, 2025
  5. Taylor BlauNov 13, 2025
  6. Jeff KingNov 18, 2025
  7. 3/9 Makefile: turn on NO_MMAP when building with ASanJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  8. Collin FunkNov 12, 2025
  9. Jeff KingNov 12, 2025
  10. Collin FunkNov 12, 2025
  11. Patrick SteinhardtNov 12, 2025
  12. Taylor BlauNov 13, 2025
  13. Patrick SteinhardtNov 13, 2025
  14. Jeff KingNov 18, 2025
  15. Junio C HamanoNov 13, 2025
  16. Patrick SteinhardtNov 14, 2025
  17. Jeff KingNov 15, 2025
  18. 4/9 cache-tree: avoid strtol() on non-string bufferJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  19. Patrick SteinhardtNov 12, 2025
  20. Taylor BlauNov 13, 2025
  21. Jeff KingNov 18, 2025
  22. Jeff KingNov 18, 2025
  23. 5/9 fsck: assert newline presence in fsck_ident()Jeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  24. 6/9 fsck: avoid strcspn() in fsck_ident()Jeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  25. 7/9 fsck: remove redundant date timestamp checkJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  26. 8/9 fsck: avoid parse_timestamp() on buffer that isn't NUL-terminatedJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  27. Patrick SteinhardtNov 12, 2025
  28. Junio C HamanoNov 12, 2025
  29. Jeff KingNov 15, 2025
  30. 9/9 t: enable ASan's strict_string_checks optionJeff King, Nov 12, 2025
  31. Taylor BlauNov 13, 2025
  32. 0/9 asan bonanzaJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  33. 1/9 compat/mmap: mark unused argument in git_munmap()Jeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  34. 2/9 pack-bitmap: handle name-hash lookups in incremental bitmapsJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  35. 3/9 Makefile: turn on NO_MMAP when building with ASanJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  36. 4/9 cache-tree: avoid strtol() on non-string bufferJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  37. Phillip WoodNov 18, 2025
  38. Junio C HamanoNov 23, 2025
  39. Phillip WoodNov 23, 2025
  40. Junio C HamanoNov 23, 2025
  41. Jeff KingNov 24, 2025
  42. Junio C HamanoNov 24, 2025
  43. Jeff KingNov 26, 2025
  44. Junio C HamanoNov 26, 2025
  45. 0/4 more robust functions for parsing int from bufJeff King, Nov 30, 2025
  46. 1/4 parse: prefer bool to int for boolean returnsJeff King, Nov 30, 2025
  47. Patrick SteinhardtDec 4, 2025
  48. 2/4 parse: add functions for parsing from non-string buffersJeff King, Nov 30, 2025
  49. my complaints with clarJeff King, Nov 30, 2025
  50. Phillip WoodDec 1, 2025
  51. Patrick SteinhardtDec 4, 2025
  52. Jeff KingDec 5, 2025
  53. Patrick SteinhardtDec 4, 2025
  54. Phillip WoodDec 5, 2025
  55. Junio C HamanoJan 20, 2026
  56. Jeff KingJan 21, 2026
  57. 3/4 cache-tree: use parse_int_from_buf()Jeff King, Nov 30, 2025
  58. 4/4 fsck: use parse_unsigned_from_buf() for parsing timestampJeff King, Nov 30, 2025
  59. 5/9 fsck: assert newline presence in fsck_ident()Jeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  60. 6/9 fsck: avoid strcspn() in fsck_ident()Jeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  61. 7/9 fsck: remove redundant date timestamp checkJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  62. 8/9 fsck: avoid parse_timestamp() on buffer that isn't NUL-terminatedJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  63. 9/9 t: enable ASan's strict_string_checks optionJeff King, Nov 18, 2025
  64. Junio C HamanoNov 23, 2025

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