# [bug] Multiline value should error if the next line is section 5 messages from 2018-05-06 to 2018-05-06. Participants: Shulhan, Martin Ågren, brian m. carlson, SZEDER Gábor. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/48425 ## Shulhan, 2018-05-06 19:03 Subject: [bug] Multiline value should error if the next line is section Message-ID: <20180507020348.31b473b4@kilabit.info> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20180507020348.31b473b4%40kilabit.info ``` ## Environment OS: Arch Linux Git version: git@next d54016d9e ## Reproduction Steps (1) Create the following `git.config`, ˋˋˋ [alias] tree = --no-pager log --graph \ --date=format:'%Y-%m-%d' \ --pretty=format:'%C(auto,dim)%ad %<(7,trunc) %an %Creset%m %h %s %Cgreen%d%Creset' \ --exclude="*/production" \ --exclude="*/dev-*" \ -n 20 \ [user] name = Shulhan email = ms@kilabit.info ˋˋˋ (2) Run `git config -f git.config -l` ## Expected Result Error message, fatal: bad config line 9 at git.config ## Actual Result The command print the following output, ˋˋˋ alias.tree=--no-pager log --graph --date=format:'%Y-%m-%d' --pretty=format:'%C(auto,dim)%ad %<(7,trunc) %an %Creset%m %h %s %Cgreen%d%Creset' --exclude=*/production --exclude=*/dev-* -n 20 [user] alias.name=Shulhan alias.email=ms@kilabit.info ˋˋˋ ``` ## Martin Ågren, 2018-05-06 20:03 Subject: Re: [bug] Multiline value should error if the next line is section Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAN0heSooYuGkxP9u0Uuwu_TCEOd_pj20L05%3DbwwHynPOapej6g%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20180507020348.31b473b4@kilabit.info> ``` Hi Shulhan Thank you for your report. I'm abbreviating a bit: On 6 May 2018 at 21:03, Shulhan wrote: > [alias] > tree = --no-pager log --graph \ > -n 20 \ > [user] > name = Shulhan > > (2) Run `git config -f git.config -l` > > The command print the following output, > > alias.tree=--no-pager log --graph -n 20 [user] > alias.name=Shulhan Small mistake, big consequences. :-) This behavior looks correct to me, though. It seems very hard to me to second-guess what the user meant. For example, what if that third line contained a "="? Like: [alias] huh = !dd \ bs=1024 ... Should Git guess that the backslash on the second line was a mistake? Or maybe not, because alias.bs = "1024 ..." would be a useless alias? I think such guessing would be theoretically possible, but especially if Git guesses wrong, that could be very frustrating to fight against. Martin ``` ## brian m. carlson, 2018-05-06 21:09 Subject: Re: [bug] Multiline value should error if the next line is section Message-ID: <20180506210943.GA953644@genre.crustytoothpaste.net> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20180506210943.GA953644%40genre.crustytoothpaste.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Sun, May 06, 2018 at 10:03:10PM +0200, Martin Ågren wrote: > This behavior looks correct to me, though. It seems very hard to me to > second-guess what the user meant. For example, what if that third line > contained a "="? Like: > > [alias] > huh = !dd \ > bs=1024 ... > > Should Git guess that the backslash on the second line was a mistake? > Or maybe not, because alias.bs = "1024 ..." would be a useless alias? > > I think such guessing would be theoretically possible, but especially if > Git guesses wrong, that could be very frustrating to fight against. I agree that trying to guess what the user wanted here is likely impossible. Furthermore, Git intentionally ignores unknown options. For example, I have advice and diff options set in my .gitconfig that would not be valid on the Git shipped with a base CentOS 6 (which, unfortunately, I sometimes have to use). It's very convenient for users working across a variety of systems that unknown options are simply ignored, even if that means sometimes mistakes are not caught. -- brian m. carlson: Houston, Texas, US OpenPGP: https://keybase.io/bk2204 ``` ## Shulhan, 2018-05-06 23:03 Subject: Re: [bug] Multiline value should error if the next line is section Message-ID: <20180507060322.66b121bd@kilabit.info> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20180507060322.66b121bd%40kilabit.info In-Reply-To: ``` On Sun, 6 May 2018 22:03:10 +0200 Martin Ågren wrote: > Hi Shulhan > > Thank you for your report. I'm abbreviating a bit: > > On 6 May 2018 at 21:03, Shulhan wrote: > > [alias] > > tree = --no-pager log --graph \ > > -n 20 \ > > [user] > > name = Shulhan > > > > (2) Run `git config -f git.config -l` > > > > The command print the following output, > > > > alias.tree=--no-pager log --graph -n 20 [user] > > alias.name=Shulhan > > Small mistake, big consequences. :-) > > This behavior looks correct to me, though. It seems very hard to me to > second-guess what the user meant. For example, what if that third line > contained a "="? Like: > > [alias] > huh = !dd \ > bs=1024 ... > > Should Git guess that the backslash on the second line was a mistake? > Or maybe not, because alias.bs = "1024 ..." would be a useless alias? The context of multiline next value that I reported before was about section, not variable. > > I think such guessing would be theoretically possible, but especially > if Git guesses wrong, that could be very frustrating to fight against. > I'm not familiar with git config parser, obviously :), but checking the start of next multiline value that start with '[' maybe not impossible. Git should not guessed, but report error at the offending line: either user forgot to enclosed the variable with double quote or they missplace the backslash. ``` ## SZEDER Gábor, 2018-05-06 23:25 Subject: Re: [bug] Multiline value should error if the next line is section Message-ID: <20180506232514.3065-1-szeder.dev@gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20180506232514.3065-1-szeder.dev%40gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20180507060322.66b121bd@kilabit.info> ``` > On Sun, 6 May 2018 22:03:10 +0200 > Martin Ågren wrote: > > On 6 May 2018 at 21:03, Shulhan wrote: > > > [alias] > > > tree = --no-pager log --graph \ > > > -n 20 \ > > > [user] > > > name = Shulhan > > > > > > (2) Run `git config -f git.config -l` > > > > > > The command print the following output, > > > > > > alias.tree=--no-pager log --graph -n 20 [user] > > > alias.name=Shulhan > > > > Small mistake, big consequences. :-) > > > > This behavior looks correct to me, though. It seems very hard to me to > > second-guess what the user meant. For example, what if that third line > > contained a "="? Like: > > > > [alias] > > huh = !dd \ > > bs=1024 ... > > > > Should Git guess that the backslash on the second line was a mistake? > > Or maybe not, because alias.bs = "1024 ..." would be a useless alias? > > The context of multiline next value that I reported before was > about section, not variable. > > > > > I think such guessing would be theoretically possible, but especially > > if Git guesses wrong, that could be very frustrating to fight against. > > > > I'm not familiar with git config parser, obviously :), but checking > the start of next multiline value that start with '[' maybe not > impossible. Git should not guessed, but report error at the > offending line: either user forgot to enclosed the variable with > double quote or they missplace the backslash. But it's not an error; as far as the config file syntax is concerned, it's perfectly valid, even if it's not what you intended. Reporting it as error would be just guessing. ```