* Confused about git-config's description of escaping
@ 2020-08-03 19:24 Kyle Meyer
2020-08-03 20:15 ` Junio C Hamano
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Kyle Meyer @ 2020-08-03 19:24 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: git; +Cc: Junio C Hamano
When describing the configuration syntax, the git-config manpage says
this about the value:
Inside double quotes, double quote " and backslash \ characters must
be escaped: use \" for " and \\ for \.
I find the "Inside double quotes" part confusing because escaping these
characters appears to also be needed when there are no enclosing double
quotes:
$ nl .git/config | tail -n2
6 [a]
7 b = c"d
$ git config a.b
fatal: bad config line 7 in file .git/config
$ git version
git version 2.28.0.236.gb10cc79966
I was going to suggest dropping the "Inside double quotes" qualifier.
Perhaps
Double quote " and backslash \ characters in the value must
be escaped: use \" for " and \\ for \.
But it looks like that's pretty close to how this sentence was written
before ff5507ed2a (Documentation/config.txt: describe the structure
first and then meaning, 2015-03-04), which makes me think that I'm
misreading the description or otherwise missing something.
What's gained by specifying "Inside double quotes"? Are there any cases
where a value, whether enclosed in double quotes or not, doesn't need "
or \ characters escaped?
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: Confused about git-config's description of escaping
2020-08-03 19:24 Confused about git-config's description of escaping Kyle Meyer
@ 2020-08-03 20:15 ` Junio C Hamano
2020-08-03 20:58 ` Kyle Meyer
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Junio C Hamano @ 2020-08-03 20:15 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Kyle Meyer; +Cc: git
Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> writes:
> When describing the configuration syntax, the git-config manpage says
> this about the value:
>
> Inside double quotes, double quote " and backslash \ characters must
> be escaped: use \" for " and \\ for \.
>
> I find the "Inside double quotes" part confusing because escaping these
> characters appears to also be needed when there are no enclosing double
> quotes:
>
> $ nl .git/config | tail -n2
> 6 [a]
> 7 b = c"d
>
> $ git config a.b
> fatal: bad config line 7 in file .git/config
>
> $ git version
> git version 2.28.0.236.gb10cc79966
>
> I was going to suggest dropping the "Inside double quotes" qualifier.
> Perhaps
>
> Double quote " and backslash \ characters in the value must
> be escaped: use \" for " and \\ for \.
>
> But it looks like that's pretty close to how this sentence was written
> before ff5507ed2a (Documentation/config.txt: describe the structure
> first and then meaning, 2015-03-04), which makes me think that I'm
> misreading the description or otherwise missing something.
>
> What's gained by specifying "Inside double quotes"? Are there any cases
> where a value, whether enclosed in double quotes or not, doesn't need "
> or \ characters escaped?
Perhaps there is another description missing, either from the
written docs or from your reading of it, that says that a value with
these characters must be enclosed in double quotes pair?
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: Confused about git-config's description of escaping
2020-08-03 20:15 ` Junio C Hamano
@ 2020-08-03 20:58 ` Kyle Meyer
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Kyle Meyer @ 2020-08-03 20:58 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Junio C Hamano; +Cc: git
Junio C Hamano writes:
> Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> writes:
[...]
>> What's gained by specifying "Inside double quotes"? Are there any cases
>> where a value, whether enclosed in double quotes or not, doesn't need "
>> or \ characters escaped?
>
> Perhaps there is another description missing, either from the
> written docs or from your reading of it, that says that a value with
> these characters must be enclosed in double quotes pair?
Thanks for the reply.
I'm not spotting anything in the current git-config documentation that
says that. And it would be an incorrect description of the syntax,
wouldn't it? When entering a value containing a quote with 'git
config', enclosing double quotes aren't inserted:
$ git config a.b 'c"d'
$ tail -n2 .git/config
[a]
b = c\"d
$ git config a.b
c"d
So, it seems valid for a value to have these characters escaped without
having them enclosed in a pair of double quotes.
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
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2020-08-03 19:24 Confused about git-config's description of escaping Kyle Meyer
2020-08-03 20:15 ` Junio C Hamano
2020-08-03 20:58 ` Kyle Meyer
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