Re: [RFC/PATCH] Port branch.c to use ref-filter APIs

Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com> writes:

Do you mean "provided by ref-filter.{c,h}"?

I took time to understand the problem, but here's my understanding:

ref-filter expects the code to look like

	format = ...;
	verify_ref_format(format);
	filter_refs(...);
	for (...)
		show_ref_array_item(..., format, ...);

and in the case of "git branch -v", you need to align the sha1s based on the longest branch name, i.e. use %(padright:N+1) where N is the longest branch name. And you can get N only after calling filter_refs, while you need it for verify_ref_format().

Is my understanding correct?

If so, what prevents swapping the order of verify_ref_format and filter_refs? I understand that verify_ref_format() builds used_atom and other data-structures, hence it has to be called before show_ref_array_item() and before sorting, but I don't think you need it before filter_refs (I may have missed something though).

So, the code could look like:

filter_refs(...)
if (--format is given)
	format = the argument of --format
else
	format = STRBUF_INIT;
	strbuf_add(&format, "%(some_directive_to_display '*' if needed)");
	if (verbose)
		strbuf_addf(&format, "%(padright:%d)", max_width);
	...
verify_ref_format(format);
ref_array_sort(...);
for (...)
	show_ref_array_item(...);

(BTW, a trivial helper function to display the whole ref_array could help. It would avoid having each caller write the 'for' loop)

Ideally, you could also have a modifier atom %(alignleft) that would not need an argument and that would go through the ref_array to find the maxwidth, and do the alignment. That would give even more flexibility to the end users of "for-each-ref --format".