threads / patch / 11374

patchMake git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Subject: [PATCH] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

## tl;dr

19 messages between Dec 20, 2007 and Dec 22, 2007. Diffs are folded; open one to read it.

replies: 18people: 5as markdown or json

Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 20, 2007, 20:14 UTC · lore

Currently git send-email does not accept $EDITOR with arguments, eg, emacs -nw, when starting an editor to produce a cover letter. This fixes this in the simplest way possible, assume all spaces separates either the command from the first argument, or two arguments. This should work in most cases, but will break with quoted strings embedded spaces. An example of a problematic case is when there is a space in the path to the command.

Signed-off-by:  Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
---

This is related to the problems recently observed in the built in git commit and git tag. I guess the behavior of git send-email has been the same from the start, but having it treat $EDITOR substantially different from that of git commit and git tag seems like bug or at least something that should be avoided.

I'm not completely satisfied with the problem with embedded spaces, but my Perl skills aren't good enough to do anything about it. If anyone have any suggestions on how to do it, it would be greatly appreciated. None-the-less, even with this shortcoming, I think this is a step in the right direction.

 git-send-email.perl |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
Show changes to git-send-email.perl +1 −1
diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 248d035..47ae77c 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ EOT
 	close(C);
 
 	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || $repo->config("core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
-	system($editor, $compose_filename);
+	system((split ' ', $editor), $compose_filename);
 
 	open(C2,">",$compose_filename . ".final")
 		or die "Failed to open $compose_filename.final : " . $!;

-- 
1.5.4.rc1.3.gc641f
Luciano Rocha· Dec 20, 2007, 20:32 UTC · re: Gustaf Hendeby · lore

Re: [PATCH] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

On Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 09:14:06PM +0100, Gustaf Hendeby wrote: <snip>

Show 19 quoted lines
> I'm not completely satisfied with the problem with embedded spaces,
> but my Perl skills aren't good enough to do anything about it.  If
> anyone have any suggestions on how to do it, it would be greatly
> appreciated.  None-the-less, even with this shortcoming, I think this
> is a step in the right direction.
> 
>  git-send-email.perl |    2 +-
>  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
> index 248d035..47ae77c 100755
> --- a/git-send-email.perl
> +++ b/git-send-email.perl
> @@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ EOT
>  	close(C);
>  
>  	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || $repo->config("core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
> -	system($editor, $compose_filename);
> +	system((split ' ', $editor), $compose_filename);

That should be enough. Use system("$editor $compose_filename") to use perl's implicit split or, in case of meta-characters in the string, external sh -c.

Or always use the shell: $shell = $ENV{SHELL} || "/bin/sh"; system($shell, "-c", "$editor $compose_filename");

BTW, maybe add a check for the return code? system(...) == 0 or die "editor failed\n";

-- 
Luciano Rocha <luciano@eurotux.com>
Eurotux Informática, S.A. <http://www.eurotux.com/>
Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 21, 2007, 11:36 UTC · re: Luciano Rocha · lore

[PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Currently git send-email does not accept $EDITOR with arguments, eg, emacs -nw, when starting an editor to produce a cover letter. This fix uses perl's implicit splitting to perform the task and that should hopefully cover most interesting cases.

Signed-off-by:  Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
---

Thanks to Luciano for the tip to use the internal splitting in perl, that should be a better solution than to split on all spaces. I don't think it is necessary, though, to add an extra error message if the system call fails, system in it self already produces something that should be clear enough. If anyone got a strong oppinion for another error message I'll fix that.

Junio, even if this is technically not a bug fix, it would be nice to get this fix into the 1.5.4 so that the usage of $EDITOR becomes more consistent throughout git.

/Gustaf
 git-send-email.perl |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
Show changes to git-send-email.perl +1 −1
diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 248d035..5764668 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ EOT
 	close(C);
 
 	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || $repo->config("core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
-	system($editor, $compose_filename);
+	system("$editor $compose_filename");
 
 	open(C2,">",$compose_filename . ".final")
 		or die "Failed to open $compose_filename.final : " . $!;

-- 
1.5.4.rc1.4.gb8173-dirty
Jeff King· Dec 21, 2007, 13:34 UTC · re: Gustaf Hendeby · lore

Re: [PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 12:36:42PM +0100, Gustaf Hendeby wrote:
> -	system($editor, $compose_filename);
> +	system("$editor $compose_filename");

If you are going to do it that way, I suspect you want to quotemeta $compose_filename.

-Peff
Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 21, 2007, 15:23 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: [PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

On 12/21/2007 02:34 PM, Jeff King wrote:
Show 9 quoted lines
> On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 12:36:42PM +0100, Gustaf Hendeby wrote:
> 
>> -	system($editor, $compose_filename);
>> +	system("$editor $compose_filename");
> 
> If you are going to do it that way, I suspect you want to quotemeta
> $compose_filename.
> 
> -Peff

Generally that would be true, but is that really necessary when I know $compose_filename is defined as:

my $compose_filename = ".msg.$$";

Or, should I take it that you prefer the version using split? I didn't really feel good about the possibility of splitting paths with spaces that came with that one though.

/Gustaf
Jeff King· Dec 21, 2007, 19:23 UTC · re: Gustaf Hendeby · lore

Re: [PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 04:23:11PM +0100, Gustaf Hendeby wrote:
Show 6 quoted lines
> > If you are going to do it that way, I suspect you want to quotemeta
> > $compose_filename.
> Generally that would be true, but is that really necessary when I know
> $compose_filename is defined as:
> 
> my $compose_filename = ".msg.$$";

I know; it is just easier to see that it is correct with the quotemeta (and correct in the face of somebody changing the message later).

> Or, should I take it that you prefer the version using split?  I didn't
> really feel good about the possibility of splitting paths with spaces
> that came with that one though.

I am fine with using the shell. Though keep in mind that the two solutions will behave differently with

  EDITOR='foo; bar'

That is, system("$editor $message") will actually invoke the shell, whereas system(split(/ /, $editor), $message) will _just_ split on whitespace. We should do whatever is consistent with the rest of the git commands (off the top of my head, I don't know).

-Peff
Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 21, 2007, 21:07 UTC · re: Jeff King · lore

Re: [PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

On 2007-12-21 20:23, Jeff King wrote:
Show 11 quoted lines
> On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 04:23:11PM +0100, Gustaf Hendeby wrote:
> 
>>> If you are going to do it that way, I suspect you want to quotemeta
>>> $compose_filename.
>> Generally that would be true, but is that really necessary when I know
>> $compose_filename is defined as:
>>
>> my $compose_filename = ".msg.$$";
> 
> I know; it is just easier to see that it is correct with the quotemeta
> (and correct in the face of somebody changing the message later).
Point taken!
Show 14 quoted lines
> 
>> Or, should I take it that you prefer the version using split?  I didn't
>> really feel good about the possibility of splitting paths with spaces
>> that came with that one though.
> 
> I am fine with using the shell. Though keep in mind that the two
> solutions will behave differently with
> 
>   EDITOR='foo; bar'
> 
> That is, system("$editor $message") will actually invoke the shell,
> whereas system(split(/ /, $editor), $message) will _just_ split on
> whitespace. We should do whatever is consistent with the rest of the git
> commands (off the top of my head, I don't know).

A quick look at the proposed solution to the similar problem with git commit, using code now in git tag, it seems it uses a split like solution, though taking " and ' quoting into consideration. On the top of my head I can't come up with any other commands using $EDITOR. I'll try to find some time the next couple of days to make a reasonable equivalent solution here.

Thanks,
	Gustaf

begin:vcard fn:Gustaf Hendeby n:Hendeby;Gustaf org;quoted-printable:Link=C3=B6ping University;Department of Electrical Engineering adr;quoted-printable:;;;Link=C3=B6ping;;SE-581 83;Sweden email;internet:hendeby@isy.liu.se title:PhD Student tel;work:+46 (0)13 282226 tel;fax:+46 (0)13 282622 x-mozilla-html:FALSE url:http://www.control.isy.liu.se/~hendeby version:2.1 end:vcard

Junio C Hamano· Dec 21, 2007, 21:17 UTC · re: Gustaf Hendeby · lore

Re: [PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se> writes:
Show 11 quoted lines
> On 2007-12-21 20:23, Jeff King wrote:
> 
>> I am fine with using the shell. Though keep in mind that the two
>> solutions will behave differently with
>> 
>>   EDITOR='foo; bar'
>> 
>> That is, system("$editor $message") will actually invoke the shell,
>> whereas system(split(/ /, $editor), $message) will _just_ split on
>> whitespace. We should do whatever is consistent with the rest of the git
>> commands (off the top of my head, I don't know).

Personally, I think EDITOR='foo; bar' is a user shooting his foot off which we do not care about.

> A quick look at the proposed solution to the similar problem with git
> commit, using code now in git tag, it seems it uses a split like
> solution, though taking " and ' quoting into consideration.
I think the easiest to read and compatible way is:
	system('sh', '-c', '$0 $@', $editor, $filename)
Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 22, 2007, 00:40 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

[PATCH v3] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Currently git send-email does not accept $EDITOR with arguments, eg, emacs -nw, when starting an editor to produce a cover letter. This patch changes this by letting the shell handle the option parsing.

Signed-off-by:  Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
---

This is based on Junio's suggestion on most readable and compatible solution. I'm not sure if it is identical to the C solution for git tag, but it seems to be a reasonable solution.

 git-send-email.perl |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
Show changes to git-send-email.perl +1 −1
diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index 248d035..e47994a 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ EOT
 	close(C);
 
 	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || $repo->config("core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
-	system($editor, $compose_filename);
+	system('sh', '-c', '$0 $@', $editor, $compose_filename);
 
 	open(C2,">",$compose_filename . ".final")
 		or die "Failed to open $compose_filename.final : " . $!;

-- 
1.5.4.rc1.16.gc817f
Junio C Hamano· Dec 22, 2007, 01:05 UTC · re: Gustaf Hendeby · lore

Re: [PATCH v3] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se> writes:
Show 29 quoted lines
> Currently git send-email does not accept $EDITOR with arguments, eg,
> emacs -nw, when starting an editor to produce a cover letter.  This
> patch changes this by letting the shell handle the option parsing.
>
> Signed-off-by:  Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
> ---
>
> This is based on Junio's suggestion on most readable and compatible
> solution.  I'm not sure if it is identical to the C solution for git
> tag, but it seems to be a reasonable solution.
>
>  git-send-email.perl |    2 +-
>  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
> index 248d035..e47994a 100755
> --- a/git-send-email.perl
> +++ b/git-send-email.perl
> @@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ EOT
>  	close(C);
>  
>  	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || $repo->config("core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
> -	system($editor, $compose_filename);
> +	system('sh', '-c', '$0 $@', $editor, $compose_filename);
>  
>  	open(C2,">",$compose_filename . ".final")
>  		or die "Failed to open $compose_filename.final : " . $!;
> -- 
> 1.5.4.rc1.16.gc817f

Thanks. Has this been tested? IOW, did you compose this message with this patch?

Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 22, 2007, 08:47 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH v3] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 34 quoted lines
> Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se> writes:
> 
>> Currently git send-email does not accept $EDITOR with arguments, eg,
>> emacs -nw, when starting an editor to produce a cover letter.  This
>> patch changes this by letting the shell handle the option parsing.
>>
>> Signed-off-by:  Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
>> ---
>>
>> This is based on Junio's suggestion on most readable and compatible
>> solution.  I'm not sure if it is identical to the C solution for git
>> tag, but it seems to be a reasonable solution.
>>
>>  git-send-email.perl |    2 +-
>>  1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
>> index 248d035..e47994a 100755
>> --- a/git-send-email.perl
>> +++ b/git-send-email.perl
>> @@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ EOT
>>  	close(C);
>>  
>>  	my $editor = $ENV{GIT_EDITOR} || $repo->config("core.editor") || $ENV{VISUAL} || $ENV{EDITOR} || "vi";
>> -	system($editor, $compose_filename);
>> +	system('sh', '-c', '$0 $@', $editor, $compose_filename);
>>  
>>  	open(C2,">",$compose_filename . ".final")
>>  		or die "Failed to open $compose_filename.final : " . $!;
>> -- 
>> 1.5.4.rc1.16.gc817f
> 
> Thanks.  Has this been tested?  IOW, did you compose this
> message with this patch?

Yes, I sent out the patch with git send-email, with git including the patch itself and EDITOR=emacsclient -a emacs. I have also played around with it a bit trying to make sure it is valid, but no more rigorous testing that that. I'm not really sure how I would do that.

Thanks for all comments from everyone, I have learned a lot!
/Gustaf
Junio C Hamano· Dec 21, 2007, 17:02 UTC · re: Gustaf Hendeby · lore

Re: [PATCH v2] Make git send-email accept $EDITOR with arguments

Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se> writes:
> Junio, even if this is technically not a bug fix, it would be nice to
> get this fix into the 1.5.4 so that the usage of $EDITOR becomes more
> consistent throughout git.

I can buy that, but at least a single line comment in front of that system() explaining why this is safe to do so would be beneficial. I suspect that somebody would propose moving $compse_filename inside $GIT_DIR, now people realized $compose_filename is currently "./.msg.$$", and $GIT_DIR could be anything. Quotemeta would probably be better as the code you are touching won't be affected by a future change to the value of that constant defined far away in the source.

Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 22, 2007, 00:43 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

[PATCH] Move git send-email cover letter temporary file to $GIT_DIR

git send-email with the --compose option now puts its temporary file in $GIT_DIR instead of the current working directory. The file should be removed on exit, still it is nice not to mess around in the working directory if not necessary.

Signed-off-by: Gustaf Hendeby <hendeby@isy.liu.se>
---
 git-send-email.perl |    8 +++++---
 1 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
Show changes to git-send-email.perl +5 −3
diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index e47994a..c4eae9d 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -150,9 +150,6 @@ my $auth;
 sub unique_email_list(@);
 sub cleanup_compose_files();
 
-# Constants (essentially)
-my $compose_filename = ".msg.$$";
-
 # Variables we fill in automatically, or via prompting:
 my (@to,@cc,@initial_cc,@bcclist,@xh,
 	$initial_reply_to,$initial_subject,@files,$author,$sender,$compose,$time);
@@ -170,6 +167,11 @@ if ($@) {
 	$term = new FakeTerm "$@: going non-interactive";
 }
 
+# Constants (essentially)
+my $compose_filename = $repo->command(qw/rev-parse --git-dir/);
+chomp($compose_filename);
+$compose_filename =  $compose_filename . "/.msg.$$";
+
 # Behavior modification variables
 my ($quiet, $dry_run) = (0, 0);
 

-- 
1.5.4.rc1.16.gc817f
David Symonds· Dec 22, 2007, 01:18 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] Move git send-email cover letter temporary file to $GIT_DIR

On Dec 22, 2007 12:09 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> Don't you have $repo (an instance of Git) at that point?  You
> should be able to ask repo_path() about it, shouldn't you?
Isn't git-send-email still useful outside a Git repo?
Dave.
Junio C Hamano· Dec 22, 2007, 06:49 UTC · re: David Symonds · lore

Re: [PATCH] Move git send-email cover letter temporary file to $GIT_DIR

"David Symonds" <dsymonds@gmail.com> writes:
Show 5 quoted lines
> On Dec 22, 2007 12:09 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> Don't you have $repo (an instance of Git) at that point?  You
>> should be able to ask repo_path() about it, shouldn't you?
>
> Isn't git-send-email still useful outside a Git repo?
Then why does it run "rev-parse --git-dir"?
David Symonds· Dec 22, 2007, 07:04 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] Move git send-email cover letter temporary file to $GIT_DIR

On Dec 22, 2007 5:49 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 10 quoted lines
>
> "David Symonds" <dsymonds@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On Dec 22, 2007 12:09 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> >> Don't you have $repo (an instance of Git) at that point?  You
> >> should be able to ask repo_path() about it, shouldn't you?
> >
> > Isn't git-send-email still useful outside a Git repo?
>
> Then why does it run "rev-parse --git-dir"?

I'm suggesting that it should still function just fine without being inside a repo, so it should adequately handle "rev-parse --git-dir" returning 128.

Dave.
Junio C Hamano· Dec 22, 2007, 08:52 UTC · re: David Symonds · lore

Re: [PATCH] Move git send-email cover letter temporary file to $GIT_DIR

"David Symonds" <dsymonds@gmail.com> writes:
Show 15 quoted lines
> On Dec 22, 2007 5:49 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>> "David Symonds" <dsymonds@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > On Dec 22, 2007 12:09 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> >> Don't you have $repo (an instance of Git) at that point?  You
>> >> should be able to ask repo_path() about it, shouldn't you?
>> >
>> > Isn't git-send-email still useful outside a Git repo?
>>
>> Then why does it run "rev-parse --git-dir"?
>
> I'm suggesting that it should still function just fine without being
> inside a repo, so it should adequately handle "rev-parse --git-dir"
> returning 128.

Ah, true. Then the current behaviour to use the $(pwd) for temporary file area would be Ok for now.

Gustaf Hendeby· Dec 22, 2007, 09:13 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] Move git send-email cover letter temporary file to $GIT_DIR

Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 16 quoted lines
> "David Symonds" <dsymonds@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> On Dec 22, 2007 5:49 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> "David Symonds" <dsymonds@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> On Dec 22, 2007 12:09 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>>> Don't you have $repo (an instance of Git) at that point?  You
>>>>> should be able to ask repo_path() about it, shouldn't you?
>>>> Isn't git-send-email still useful outside a Git repo?
>>> Then why does it run "rev-parse --git-dir"?
>> I'm suggesting that it should still function just fine without being
>> inside a repo, so it should adequately handle "rev-parse --git-dir"
>> returning 128.
> 
> Ah, true.  Then the current behaviour to use the $(pwd) for
> temporary file area would be Ok for now.
Ok, just drop the patch I don't feel strongly about it.

However, the code today demands that git send-email is run from within a git repository - it seems that $repo = Git->repository() assumes that. I'd suggest changing this behavior so that git send-email becomes runnable from outside a git repository. Unfortunately, I'm starting to get in above my head here, for one I really don't know the helper functions in Git.pm. Is there any good place to read up on what is in Git.pm, except for the code itself?

/Gustaf

← back to recent threads