From: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
To: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>
Cc: Nikolai Weibull <now@bitwi.se>, Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>,
Eric Wong <normalperson@yhbt.net>,
git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC] Git config file reader in Perl (WIP)
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:44:11 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <200701192344.11972.jnareb@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0701191420000.22628@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>
Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>
> On Fri, 19 Jan 2007, Jakub Narebski wrote:
>
>> From a bit of testing, as documentation of config file format is
>> woefully incomplete, (yes, I know I should use the source) _some_ of C
>> escape sequences aka. character escape codes (CEC) are parsed:
>
> No, you should not just use the source. You should use the source _and_
> complete the documentation.
Something like the patch below? Untested! ("make doc" up to
git-repo-config.txt compiles, though).
I'm not sure how to tell that you can have [section] if you have
[section "subsection"], but you don't need to. And I probably forgot
to add some information.
And I'm not sure if some behavior should not be changed, for example
allowing _any_ line to be continued with `\`, or that other character
escape sequences and perhaps also octal character sequences should be
allowed (either that or `\b` should not be parsed).
I can send proper patch if requested, but I'd rather above issues
were resolved first.
diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index da7fde5..9544308 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -14,14 +14,53 @@ dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
+Syntax
+~~~~~~
+
The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
-ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
-blank lines are ignored, lines containing strings enclosed in square
-brackets start sections and all the other lines are recognized
-as setting variables, in the form 'name = value'. If there is no equal
-sign on the line, the entire line is taken as 'name' and the variable
-is recognized as boolean "true". String values may be entirely or partially
-enclosed in double quotes; some variables may require special value format.
+ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
+blank lines are ignored.
+
+The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with
+the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
+section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Each variable
+must belong to some section, which means that there must be section
+header before first setting of a variable.
+
+Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection
+put it name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
+in the section header, like in example below
+
+ [section "subsection"]
+
+Subsection names can contain whitespace and are case sensitive. Variables
+may belong directly to a section, or to a given subsection.
+
+All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form
+'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line
+is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
+Variable names are case insensitive. There can be more than one value
+for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
+
+Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
+Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
+
+String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
+You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to
+preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains
+beginning of comment characters, it means if it contains `#` or `;`.
+Double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters in variable value must
+be escaped: use `\"` for `"`, and `\\` for `\`.
+
+The following escape sequences (beside `\"` and `\\`) are recognized:
+`\n` for newline character (NL), `\t` for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
+and `\b` for backspace (BS). No other character escape codes, nor octal
+char sequences are valid.
+
+Variable value ending in a `\` is continued on the next line in the
+customary UNIX fashion.
+
+Some variables may require special value format.
Example
~~~~~~~
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2007-01-19 22:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 54+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2007-01-15 0:44 [RFC] Git config file reader in Perl (WIP) Jakub Narebski
2007-01-15 7:08 ` Eric Wong
2007-01-15 9:03 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-15 9:56 ` Eric Wong
2007-01-15 10:01 ` Shawn O. Pearce
2007-01-15 10:32 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-15 11:26 ` Eric Wong
2007-01-15 12:15 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-15 15:34 ` Nikolai Weibull
2007-01-15 15:44 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-15 16:22 ` Nikolai Weibull
2007-01-15 16:00 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-16 10:45 ` Junio C Hamano
2007-01-16 11:12 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-16 14:14 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-16 22:17 ` Nikolai Weibull
2007-01-16 22:37 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-16 22:56 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-16 23:24 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-17 8:51 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-17 9:48 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-17 10:44 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-17 12:11 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-17 12:37 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-17 14:00 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-19 12:10 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-19 12:25 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-19 13:20 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-19 22:44 ` Jakub Narebski [this message]
2007-01-20 0:08 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-20 0:59 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-20 0:19 ` Junio C Hamano
2007-01-20 1:25 ` [PATCH] config_set_multivar(): disallow newlines in keys Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-20 1:40 ` Junio C Hamano
2007-01-22 15:06 ` Alex Riesen
2007-01-22 15:21 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-22 15:33 ` Alex Riesen
2007-01-22 15:44 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-22 16:09 ` Alex Riesen
2007-01-23 11:26 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-23 12:47 ` Alex Riesen
2007-01-20 14:03 ` [PATCH] Documentation/config.txt: Document config file syntax better Jakub Narebski
2007-01-22 15:25 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-24 14:14 ` [PATCH 2/1] Documentation/config.txt: Correct info about subsection name Jakub Narebski
2007-01-16 22:42 ` [RFC] Git config file reader in Perl (WIP) Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-17 18:08 ` Nikolai Weibull
2007-01-17 19:22 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-17 20:01 ` Nikolai Weibull
2007-01-17 19:25 ` Jakub Narebski
2007-01-18 0:50 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-16 19:09 ` Eric Wong
2007-01-16 9:51 ` Eric Wong
2007-01-16 10:47 ` Johannes Schindelin
2007-01-16 19:53 ` Eric Wong
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
List information: http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=200701192344.11972.jnareb@gmail.com \
--to=jnareb@gmail.com \
--cc=Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de \
--cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=junkio@cox.net \
--cc=normalperson@yhbt.net \
--cc=now@bitwi.se \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox
https://80x24.org/mirrors/git.git
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).