Re: [PATCH 1/3] git-compat-util: introduce skip_to_opt_val()

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 3, 2017, 22:48 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqfu8rig10.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAP8UFD2OSsqzhyAL-QG1TOowB-xgbf=kC9wHre+FLc+0J1Xy+Q@mail.gmail.com>

Christian Couder <christian.couder@gmail.com> writes:

> Anyway there is a design choice to be made. Adding a "const char
> *default" argument makes the function more generic,...

I didn't suggest anything of that sort, and I do not understand why you are repeatedly talking about "default" that you considered and rejected, as if it were an alternative viable option. I agree that "default" is not yet a good idea and it is a solution to a problem that is not yet shown to exist.

On the other hand, just assigning NULL to *arg when you did not see a delimiting '=', on the other hand, is an alternative option that is viable.

> .... I think setting
> "arg" to NULL increases the risk of crashes and makes it too easy to
> make "--key" and "--key=" behave differently which I think is not
> consistent and not intuitive.

So now this is very specific to the need of command line argument parsing and is not a generic thing? You cannot have your cake and eat it too, though.