Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] config.txt: describe handling of whitespace further

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 20, 2024, 07:12 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqttl1js1o.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <e389acbfacd5046a926b87346d41f9c7962e3c23.1710800549.git.dsimic@manjaro.org>

Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> writes:

Show 6 quoted lines

>  A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by
> +ending it with a `\`; the backslash and the end-of-line are stripped.
> +Leading whitespace characters after 'name =', the remainder of the
>  line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing
> +whitespace characters of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed
> +in double quotes.

Can we directly tighten the "trailing..." part, instead of having to add an extra long sentence ...

> +The discarding of the trailing whitespace characters
> +applies regardless of the discarding of the portion of the line after
> +the first comment character.

... like this as an attempt to clarify?

    Leading whitespace characters before and after 'name =', and the
    remainder of the line after the first comment character '#' or
    ';', are removed, and then trailing whitespace characters at the
    end of the line are discarded.

By the way, if a run of whitespace characters are enclosed in double quotes, they cannot be trailing at the end of the line, as the closing double quote is not a whitespace character, so it is out of place to talk about quoted string in the context of trailing blank removal. The unquoting would want to be discussed separately.

> +Internal whitespace characters within the
> +value are retained verbatim.

Good.

>  
>  Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters
>  must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`.

Thanks for working on this topic.