On 27.01.13 10:31, Jonathan Nieder wrote: > Hi, > > Torsten Bögershausen wrote: >> On 15.01.13 21:38, Junio C Hamano wrote: >>> Torsten Bögershausen <tboegi@xxxxxx> writes: > >>>> What do we think about something like this for fishing for which: > [...] >>>> +which () { >>>> + echo >&2 "which is not portable (please use type)" >>>> + exit 1 >>>> +} > [...] >>> if ( >>> which frotz && >>> test $(frobonitz --version" -le 2.0 >>> ) > > With the above definition of "which", the only sign of a mistake would > be some extra output to stderr (which is quelled when running tests in > the normal way). The "exit" is caught by the subshell and just makes > the "if" condition false. > > That's not so terrible --- it could still dissuade new test authors > from using "which". The downside I'd worry about is that it provides > a false sense of security despite not catching problems like > > write_script x <<-EOF && > # Use "foo" if possible. Otherwise use "bar". > if which foo && test $(foo --version) -le 2.0 > then > ... > ... > EOF > ./x > > That's not a great tradeoff relative to the impact of the problem > being solved. > > Don't get me wrong. I really do want to see more static or dynamic > analysis of git's shell scripts in the future. I fear that for the > tradeoffs to make sense, though, the analysis needs to be more > sophisticated: > > * A very common error in test scripts is leaving out the "&&" > connecting adjacent statements, which causes early errors > in a test assertion to be missed and tests to pass by mistake. > Unfortunately the grammar of the dialect of shell used in tests is > not regular enough to make this easily detectable using regexps. > > * Another common mistake is using "cd" without entering a subshell. > Detecting this requires counting nested parentheses and noticing > when a parenthesis is quoted. > > * Another common mistake is relying on the semantics of variable > assignments in front of function calls. Detecting this requires > recognizing which commands are function calls. > > In the end the analysis that works best would probably involve a > full-fledged shell script parser. Something like "sparse", except for > shell command language. > > Sorry I don't have more practical advice in the short term. > > My two cents, > Jonathan Jonathan, thanks for the review. My ambition is to get the check-non-portable-shell.pl into a shape that we can enable it by default. This may be with or without checking for "which". As a first step we will hopefully see less breakage for e.g. Mac OS caused by "echo -n" or "sed -i" usage. On the longer run, we may be able to have something more advanced. Back to the which: Writing a t0009-no-which.sh like this: -------------------- #!/bin/sh test_description='Test the which' . ./test-lib.sh which () { echo >&2 "which is not portable (please use type)" exit 1 } test_expect_success 'which is not portable' ' if which frotz then say "frotz does not exist" else say "frotz does exist" fi ' test_done -------------- and running "make test" gives the following, at least in my system: [snip] *** t0009-no-which.sh *** FATAL: Unexpected exit with code 1 make[2]: *** [t0009-no-which.sh] Error 1 make[1]: *** [test] Error 2 make: *** [test] Error 2 ----------------------- running inside t/ ./t0009-no-which.sh --verbose Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/tb/projects/git/tb/t/trash directory.t0009-no-which/.git/ expecting success: if which frotz then say "frotz does not exist" else say "frotz does exist" fi which is not portable (please use type) FATAL: Unexpected exit with code 1 /Torsten -- 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