# Arbitrary long file lists?

3 messages from 2007-07-30 to 2007-07-30. Participants: David Kastrup, Alex Riesen.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/9309

## David Kastrup, 2007-07-30 12:33

Subject: Arbitrary long file lists?
Message-ID: <866442t6j5.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/866442t6j5.fsf%40lola.quinscape.zz

```

Hi,

commands like git-archive take a file list on the command line.  If
the number of files does no longer fit the argv limitations, this
causes a problem.

So it might be nice to be able to treat some "filenames" in a file
list special:

-@=filename (read LF-lines with filenames from filename)
-@=- (read lines with filenames from stdin)
-@z=filename (read NUL-terminated list with filenames from filename)
-@z=- (same from stdin)

Of course, this particular syntax, very loosely inspired by infozip,
leaves a lot to be desired: prettier proposals welcome.

But the feature itself would not be unimportant.  I am also fuzzy on
what sort of quoting should be interpreted outside of the
NUL-terminated case.

-- 
David Kastrup

```

## Alex Riesen, 2007-07-30 12:43

Subject: Re: Arbitrary long file lists?
Message-ID: <81b0412b0707300543p48964b73o5f972405645e70e9@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/81b0412b0707300543p48964b73o5f972405645e70e9%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <866442t6j5.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz>

```
On 7/30/07, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:
> commands like git-archive take a file list on the command line.  If
> the number of files does no longer fit the argv limitations, this
> causes a problem.
>
> So it might be nice to be able to treat some "filenames" in a file
> list special:
>
> -@=filename (read LF-lines with filenames from filename)
> -@=- (read lines with filenames from stdin)
> -@z=filename (read NUL-terminated list with filenames from filename)
> -@z=- (same from stdin)

git-update-index and the like use --stdin and -z.
What do you need the one with filename for?

```

## David Kastrup, 2007-07-30 13:18

Subject: Re: Arbitrary long file lists?
Message-ID: <86zm1erpwt.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/86zm1erpwt.fsf%40lola.quinscape.zz
In-Reply-To: <81b0412b0707300543p48964b73o5f972405645e70e9@mail.gmail.com>

```
"Alex Riesen" <raa.lkml@gmail.com> writes:

> On 7/30/07, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:
>> commands like git-archive take a file list on the command line.  If
>> the number of files does no longer fit the argv limitations, this
>> causes a problem.
>>
>> So it might be nice to be able to treat some "filenames" in a file
>> list special:
>>
>> -@=filename (read LF-lines with filenames from filename)
>> -@=- (read lines with filenames from stdin)
>> -@z=filename (read NUL-terminated list with filenames from filename)
>> -@z=- (same from stdin)
>
> git-update-index and the like use --stdin and -z.
> What do you need the one with filename for?

Uh, git-archive?

I was thinking that -z could conflict with other uses for in/output,
but indeed git-archive does not seem to have any other area that would
be affected by -z.

So this request at the current point of time can be reduced to let
git-archive have --stdin and -z options.  That is actually important
as one can't concatenate zip-files, and so xargs does not help.

But file lists are also important for things like git-diff (for which
the NUL-endedness of input is a separate issue from its output).  So
instead of adding stdin piecemeal, it was some sort of idea to have
this generally available in file lists.

If somebody can come up with a nice syntax.

-- 
David Kastrup

```