On 2024-09-24 at 21:52:35, Ron Ziroby Romero wrote: > Howdy git folk, > > I want to revive the discussion on JSON output. I see a discussion in > 2021 about it, but it didnt come to a resolution. That discussion was > talking about adding a --json flag. I have a slightly different > approach. > > I see online that many people have tried to make various hacks to > convert git output into JSON, but they all lack completeness, > especially with log messages with arbitrary text. I believe the best > and most correct way to get JSON output from git is to add it as a new > format to the pretty option. Then, it would be easy to pipe the output > into something like jq to parse the JSON. Trying to convert git's > output into JSON is a losing proposition. You've already lost some of > the context of the output by getting it out of the git program itself. > A pretty option would provide a standard way to get correct JSON > output, with git's code handling the weird corner cases. > > What do y'all think? I think this is ultimately a bad idea. JSON requires that the output be UTF-8, but Git processes a large amount of data, including file names, ref names, commit messages, author and committer identities, diff output, and other file contents, that are not restricted to UTF-8. In fact, despite my recommendation, the trace2 JSON output simply outputs invalid UTF-8, which just doesn't work in nearly any tool, if it encounters such data. We shouldn't add more broken-by-default functionality. However, if you were interested in CBOR output, which isn't human-readable but is capable of handling byte strings, then I don't see a problem. CBOR is used in FIDO2 and a variety of other protocols and is interoperable, so it should be a fine choice here. -- brian m. carlson (they/them or he/him) Toronto, Ontario, CA
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