Re: [PATCH] ident: don't consider trailing dot crud

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

I've had this on 'seen' as-is, hoping to see a quick update so that we can merge it down to 'next' before -rc0; here is a minimally touched-up version I'll replace it with.

Thanks.

------- >8 ------------- >8 ------------- >8 ------------- >8 -------
From: "brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Subject: [PATCH] ident: don't consider '.' a crud

When we process a user's name (as in user.name), we strip all leading and trailing crud from it. Right now, we consider a dot a crud character, and strip it off.

However, this is unsuitable for many personal names because humans frequently have abbreviated suffixes, such as "Jr." or "Sr." at the end of their names, and this corrupts them. Some other users may wish to use an abbreviated name or initial, which will pose a problem especially in cultures that write the family name first, followed by the personal name.

Since the current approach causes lots of practical problems, let's avoid it by no longer considering a dot to be crud.

Note that "." in the name forces the entire name to be quoted to please mailers, but stripping "." only at the beginning and the end does not help a name with "." in the middle (like "brian m. carlson") so this change will not make it much worse. A name like "Given Family, Jr." that did not have to be quoted now would need to be, in order to be placed on the e-mail headers, though.

This is based on a weather-balloon patch by Jeff King sent in Aug 2021 https://lore.kernel.org/git/YSKm8Q8nyTavQaox@coredump.intra.peff.net/

Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
---

1:  4ce0751970 ! 1:  9478b6dadc ident: don't consider trailing dot crud
    @@ Metadata
     Author: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
     
      ## Commit message ##
    -    ident: don't consider trailing dot crud
    +    ident: don't consider '.' a crud
     
    -    When we process a user's name (as in user.name), we strip all trailing
    -    crud from it.  Right now, we consider a dot trailing crud, and strip it
    -    off.
    +    When we process a user's name (as in user.name), we strip all
    +    leading and trailing crud from it.  Right now, we consider a dot
    +    a crud character, and strip it off.
     
         However, this is unsuitable for many personal names because humans
         frequently have abbreviated suffixes, such as "Jr." or "Sr." at the end
    @@ Commit message
         Since the current approach causes lots of practical problems, let's
         avoid it by no longer considering a dot to be crud.
     
    +    Note that "." in the name forces the entire name to be quoted to
    +    please mailers, but stripping "." only at the beginning and the end
    +    does not help a name with "." in the middle (like "brian m. carlson")
    +    so this change will not make it much worse.  A name like "Given
    +    Family, Jr." that did not have to be quoted now would need to be, in
    +    order to be placed on the e-mail headers, though.
    +
    +    This is based on a weather-balloon patch by Jeff King sent in Aug 2021
    +    https://lore.kernel.org/git/YSKm8Q8nyTavQaox@coredump.intra.peff.net/
    +
         Signed-off-by: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
         Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
     

 ident.c                       |  1 -
 t/t4203-mailmap.sh            |  4 ++--
 t/t7518-ident-corner-cases.sh | 11 ++++++++++-
 3 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)