>>>>> "Junio" == Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> writes: Junio> Having said that, are we sure that Junio> printf "add bar\0initial" Junio> works per specification, or merely works by accident in some Junio> implementation? >From the POSIX spec (http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/printf.html): In addition to the escape sequences shown in XBD File Format Notation ( '\\' , '\a' , '\b' , '\f' , '\n' , '\r' , '\t' , '\v' ), "\ddd" , where ddd is a one, two, or three-digit octal number, shall be written as a byte with the numeric value specified by the octal number. Looks pretty intentional to me. \0 is a nul. -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 <merlyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/> Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See http://methodsandmessages.posterous.com/ for Smalltalk discussion -- 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