Re: [PATCH 1/6] gitweb: action in path with use_pathinfo

>>> I think that gitweb should use single source, not CGI query parameters
>>> or variable saving [sanitized] value.
>>
>> The alternative I've been thinking about would be to have an
>> %input_parameters hash that holds all input parameters regardless of
>> hash; thus CGI query parameters and data extracted from PATH_INFO,
>> presently, but also command line options in the future, or whatever
>> else.
>>
>> This is somewhat different from your %action_vars alternative, in the
>> sense that it isolates _input_ data, whereas if I understand correctly
>> the approach you suggest would isolate _output_ data (in the sense of
>> data to be used during link creation and whatnot).
>>
>> Presently, the gitweb code defines some $variables from the input
>> parameters, and then overwrites them for output. Keeping the input
>> stuff clearly separate from the output stuff would mean that any
>> routine can retrieve the input data regardless of the subsequent
>> mangling and without any need to make ad-hoc backups or other tricks.
>>
>> So my proposal is that I implement this %input_params stuff as the
>> first patch for the pathinfo series, and use %input_params all around
>> where cgi parameters are used currently (of course, %input_params is
>> initialized with the CGI parameters at first). The next patch would be
>> the extraction of parameters from PATH_INFO. And thirdly the PATH_INFO
>> URL generation (with or without the /-before-filename thing, at your
>> preference)
>
> I presume that you would want to replace for example $hash_base
> everywhere by %input_params{'hash_base'}?

> I can think of yet another solution, namely to abstract getting
> parameters from CGI query string, from path_info, and possibly in the
> future also from command line options, and use this mechanism in
> the getting parameters and validation part.
>
> The %params hash would be filled from CGI parameters by using simply
> "%params = $cgi->Vars;", then added to in evaluate_path_info instead
> of directly modifying global parameters variables.

> The input validation
> and dispatch part would be modified to use %params (taking care of
> multivalued parameters as described in CGI(3pm)), like below:
>
>  our $action = $params{'a'} || $params{'action'};