Re: [PATCH 2/2] branch, for-each-ref: add option to omit empty lines

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Thu, Apr 06, 2023 at 06:55:52PM +0200, Øystein Walle wrote:

> > It however theoretically can break an existing use case where the
> > user correlates the output with a list of refs they externally
> > prepared (e.g. "for-each-ref --format... a b c" shows "A", "", and
> > "C", and the user knows "b" produced "").  I do not know how likely
> > such users complain, though, and if there is nobody who relies on
> > the current behaviour, surely "unconditionally omit" is a very
> > tempting approach to take.
> >
> > Thanks.
> 
> I actually instinctively expected for-each-ref to suppress empty lines, at
> least by default. I don't see a good reason for them, except for something
> along the lines of what you said.
> 
> We can of course make it a config option along with the flag, then after some
> time flip the default, and perhaps ultimately remove the config option again.
> Perhaps in a v3 if there is enough interest; will send a v2 shortly. But I
> must admit I am not very motivated to follow that up down the line.

It might be enough to flip the default unconditionally (no config), but
I think we may still want "--no-omit-empty-lines" as an escape hatch. I
dunno. Maybe that is somehow choosing the worst of both worlds.

-Peff