# Linus and whitespace

4 messages from 2009-02-01 to 2009-02-02. Participants: jidanni@jidanni.org, A Large Angry SCM, Linus Torvalds, Johannes Gilger.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/17493

## jidanni@jidanni.org, 2009-02-01 22:36

Subject: Linus and whitespace
Message-ID: <87fxix3hub.fsf@jidanni.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/87fxix3hub.fsf%40jidanni.org

```
Gentlemen, I couldn't help but notice a certain Linus B. Torvalds is
producing mail with trailing whitespace.

I recall one should (linux-doc-*/Documentation/CodingStyle*:)
"Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines."

Indeed, with my GNU Emacs show-trailing-whitespace X-ray
eyespecs on all day, whitespace becomes screaming purple space, so you
can't blame me for noticing.

Anyway, I have analyzed his messages,
(User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (LFD 1167 2008-08-23))
and discovered that the whitespace phenomenon almost always occurs if
the lines are more than 60 characters long, the "danger zone", we might say.

$ perl -nwle 'print length if / $/' recent_linus_postings|
sort|uniq -c|sort -k 2nr
      1 77
      1 76
     17 75
     17 74
     11 73
     18 72
     12 71
      6 70
      8 69
      6 68
      2 67
      1 66
      2 64
      1 63
      1 40
      9 2

```

## A Large Angry SCM, 2009-02-01 22:48

Subject: Re: Linus and whitespace
Message-ID: <498626D3.1020202@gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/498626D3.1020202%40gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <87fxix3hub.fsf@jidanni.org>

```
jidanni@jidanni.org wrote:
> Gentlemen, I couldn't help but notice a certain Linus B. Torvalds is
> producing mail with trailing whitespace.
> 
> I recall one should (linux-doc-*/Documentation/CodingStyle*:)
> "Get a decent editor and don't leave whitespace at the end of lines."
> 
> Indeed, with my GNU Emacs show-trailing-whitespace X-ray
> eyespecs on all day, whitespace becomes screaming purple space, so you
> can't blame me for noticing.
> 
> Anyway, I have analyzed his messages,
> (User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (LFD 1167 2008-08-23))
> and discovered that the whitespace phenomenon almost always occurs if
> the lines are more than 60 characters long, the "danger zone", we might say.
> 
> $ perl -nwle 'print length if / $/' recent_linus_postings|
> sort|uniq -c|sort -k 2nr
>       1 77
>       1 76
>      17 75
>      17 74
>      11 73
>      18 72
>      12 71
>       6 70
>       8 69
>       6 68
>       2 67
>       1 66
>       2 64
>       1 63
>       1 40
>       9 2

CodingStyle applies to *patches* not to discussion. In how many of those 
emails you analyzed were there any trailing whitespace in a patch?

```

## Linus Torvalds, 2009-02-01 22:56

Subject: Re: Linus and whitespace
Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.0902011455310.4704@localhost.localdomain>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/alpine.LFD.2.00.0902011455310.4704%40localhost.localdomain
In-Reply-To: <87fxix3hub.fsf@jidanni.org>

```


On Mon, 2 Feb 2009, jidanni@jidanni.org wrote:
>
> Gentlemen, I couldn't help but notice a certain Linus B. Torvalds is
> producing mail with trailing whitespace.

alpine does it when word-wrapping my messages. 

But I don't word-wrap my _patches_. Those I just insert, and alpine gets 
it right.

			Linus

```

## Johannes Gilger, 2009-02-02 07:22

Subject: Re: Linus and whitespace
Message-ID: <gm66v9$3io$1@ger.gmane.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/gm66v9%243io%241%40ger.gmane.org
In-Reply-To: <87fxix3hub.fsf@jidanni.org>

```
On 2009-02-01, jidanni@jidanni.org <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:
> Gentlemen, I couldn't help but notice a certain Linus B. Torvalds is
> producing mail with trailing whitespace.

Boy, do you have too much free time on your hands...

Greetings,
Jojo

-- 
Johannes Gilger <heipei@hackvalue.de>
http://hackvalue.de/heipei/
GPG-Key: 0x42F6DE81
GPG-Fingerprint: BB49 F967 775E BB52 3A81  882C 58EE B178 42F6 DE81

```