On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:09:59 -0400, Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > Your parser is already broken if you are calling split, as the filenames > may contain spaces (and will be quoted in that case, and you need to > unmangle). You should use "-z". > > You will probably then realize that the "-z" format looks like: > > XY file1\0file2\0 > > which still sucks. It would be more friendly as: > > XY\0file1\0file2\0 > > So you could split on "\0". But even with that, you can't just blindly > split, as the column and record separators are the same, and you might > have one or two filenames. Not true. If the second form was used, then you _can_ split on \0. It will tokenise the data for you, and then you consume ether two or three tokens depending on the status flags. So it would make the parsing simpler. But to make it even easier, how about adding a -Z that makes the output format "XY\0file1\0[file2]\0" (i.e. always three tokens per record, with the third token being empty if there is no second filename)? Though if future expandability was wanted you could end each record with \0\0 and then parsing would be a two stages of split on \0\0 for records and then split on \0 for entries? The is already precedence for the -z option to change the output format, so a second similar switch should be ok? Then the updated documentation could recommend --porcelain -Z for new users without affecting old ones. -- Julian -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html