Re: [PATCH] status: add --json output format to git status

From: Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com>
Date: Aug 4, 2025, 13:49 UTC
Message-ID: <d62a30f6-af30-489b-ab55-4c01ed3f60c9@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqo6t1n2sm.fsf@gitster.g>

On 30/07/2025 15:58, Junio C Hamano wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> "Tach via GitGitGadget" <gitgitgadget@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> This provides a robust alternative to parsing traditional output
>> formats, making it easier to build reliable tools and automation
>> around Git status information.
> 
> The writer is obviously biased ;-) but I find this a bit hand-wavy
> and unconvincing.

I agree this isn't a very convincing reason. To me a more convincing reason is that virtually every scripting language comes with a way to parse json and base64 so if we emit json with path and ref names encoded as base64 there is no need for script authors to write a parser to parse our porcelain output. To me the fact that we have to encode names using base64 is a sign that json is not particularly well suited to the task but it is widely supported format.

Thanks

Phillip