Julian Phillips <julian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>: > 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. +1 -Z could fix some of the other issues, as well, like use of space as a flag character. -- <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a> -- 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