# "Git worktree list" on paths with newlines 3 messages from 2022-02-25 to 2022-02-28. Participants: Kang-Che Sung, Junio C Hamano, Eric Sunshine. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/57473 ## Kang-Che Sung, 2022-02-25 08:32 Subject: "Git worktree list" on paths with newlines Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CADDzAfNTuuAWn1ynswTayRqgNNcPn3ou%3Dv6c%2Bz_tRsu5uoqJZA%40mail.gmail.com ``` Dear Git developers, I'm not sure if this is a good place to ask a question about the Git worktree feature. I'm writing a shell script that parses the "git worktree list --porcelain" format, and I've run into trouble on determining the end of the worktree path. Consider a repository with a "test1" branch, and I create a worktree through a command like this: $ git worktree add "$(printf 'directory\nHEAD\nbranch\n\nxyz')" test1 Git does allow me to create a worktree with newlines in its name (in a Unix file system, of course). After that, "git worktree list --porcelain" would show a somewhat tricked output, and it would break my parsing script. (What my script does is find out what worktrees check out branches of a specific pattern, and remove the worktrees found ) I wish "git worktree list --porcelain" would show directory names with some quoting or escaping so that tricky names can be handled easily for any program that reads the porcelain output. But I didn't see any command line option that enables quoting or escaping of file names. Does anyone have an idea on what I could do? ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2022-02-25 17:11 Subject: Re: "Git worktree list" on paths with newlines Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqilt2g9cb.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` Kang-Che Sung writes: > I wish "git worktree list --porcelain" would show directory names with some > quoting or escaping so that tricky names can be handled easily for any program > that reads the porcelain output. But I didn't see any command line option that > enables quoting or escaping of file names. > > Does anyone have an idea on what I could do? I agree that an output mode that claims to be --porcelain should produce output that is machine-parseable without ambiguity. The usual practice is to use quote_c_style() for output without "-z", and with "-z", just use the NUL as the termination character, as you shouldn't be listing strings with embedded NUL. ``` ## Eric Sunshine, 2022-02-28 08:43 Subject: Re: "Git worktree list" on paths with newlines Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAPig%2BcT9H%3DrcQz8GhAL5RQP%2BiXYzYc56yn2eWpQPJz9K0P-zLw%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 3:47 PM Junio C Hamano wrote: > Kang-Che Sung writes: > > I wish "git worktree list --porcelain" would show directory names with some > > quoting or escaping so that tricky names can be handled easily for any program > > that reads the porcelain output. But I didn't see any command line option that > > enables quoting or escaping of file names. > > > > Does anyone have an idea on what I could do? > > I agree that an output mode that claims to be --porcelain should > produce output that is machine-parseable without ambiguity. > > The usual practice is to use quote_c_style() for output without > "-z", and with "-z", just use the NUL as the termination character, > as you shouldn't be listing strings with embedded NUL. A couple additional comments... Phillip has just submitted a patch to add a `-z` mode to `git worktree list --porcelain`. You can see it at [1]. Porcelain mode should indeed be quoting the path using quote_c_style(); the fact that it doesn't is a bug which would be nice to fix. This has been discussed previously[2], however, there may be backward compatibility concerns[3]. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.1164.git.1645801727732.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/ [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAPig+cQq_RnanDQ3jHfNz_L58WyzmsUJBhtdrLxa=H0v_io+WA@mail.gmail.com/ [3]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/936f9b7c-6d54-00bc-f136-4cb4c2836eb6@gmail.com/ ```