Re: bug? illegal text in commit log

From: René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de>
Date: Feb 6, 2020, 17:30 UTC
Message-ID: <e271bb17-376d-426f-61b2-86971f1cb02b@web.de>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqd0arfyw8.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

Am 06.02.20 um 17:45 schrieb Junio C Hamano:

Show 8 quoted lines

> René Scharfe <l.s.r@web.de> writes:
>
>> Like a Lines: header specifying the number of lines in the commit message?
>
> The only part of the workflow that can count the number reliably is
> format-patch.  But the output of format-patch is designed to be
> edited further, and expecting users to adjust the number when they
> make such an edit is a bit too much.

I didn't think of that, but certainly did edit the output of format-patch before myself. I suspect the effort to update the header would be bearable, as it doesn't need to be exactly right and is only needs to shield the part that looks like a patch.

We could not actually use "Lines" as the name for the header, by the way, as it's already defined to be the number of lines in the whole email. Mailinfo would ignored any patches sent using a MUA that adds such headers.

Anyway, adding a header would not cover the case where someone adds a diff manually (and without indentation).

Show 16 quoted lines

> As nobody in the discussion seem to care any e-mail source other
> than format-patch, we may probably be able to teach mailinfo that
>
>  * the first line that
>    - begins with "diff " or "Index", or
>    - is "---" (and nothing else on the line)
>    signals that the line no longer is part of the log
>
>  * but if it finds a line that begins with "diff --git" (or
>    optionally just "diff "), do not blindly assume that is the end
>    of the log, and instead try to find the first "---" line.  If
>    there isn't any "---", then take that "diff" line the beginning
>    of the patch, but if there is, "---" is the end of the message.
>
> The latter rule is the new one.  And there is no need to change
> format-patch output.

I like this idea. It will probably be tricky to implement, though, as mailinfo currently goes through the input line by line and has no easy way to look ahead.

René