Re: [PATCH] for-each-ref: add option to omit newlines

Øystein Walle [off-list ref] writes:

On to the patch itself: I contemplated putting '\n' in the default format and
removing it if -n was given, which would get rid of the need to pass an exta
argument to show_ref(). But that means we would need to *insert it* when a
format is given and -n is not...

I would rather see us go in the direction to add "-z" output option,
which is what everybody else that produces NUL terminated entries in
our suite of subcommands does.

IOW, something along with this line (untested).

 builtin/for-each-ref.c | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/builtin/for-each-ref.c b/builtin/for-each-ref.c
index 51798b4..2c8cac8 100644
--- a/builtin/for-each-ref.c
+++ b/builtin/for-each-ref.c

@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ static const char **used_atom;
 static cmp_type *used_atom_type;
 static int used_atom_cnt, need_tagged, need_symref;
 static int need_color_reset_at_eol;
+static int line_termination = '\n';
 
 /*
  * Used to parse format string and sort specifiers

@@ -1023,7 +1024,7 @@ static void show_ref(struct refinfo *info, const char *format, int quote_style)
 		resetv.s = color;
 		print_value(&resetv, quote_style);
 	}
-	putchar('\n');
+	putchar(line_termination);
 }
 
 static struct ref_sort *default_sort(void)

@@ -1088,6 +1089,9 @@ int cmd_for_each_ref(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		OPT_STRING(  0 , "format", &format, N_("format"), N_("format to use for the output")),
 		OPT_CALLBACK(0 , "sort", sort_tail, N_("key"),
 			    N_("field name to sort on"), &opt_parse_sort),
+		OPT_SET_INT('z', NULL, &line_termination,
+			    N_("Use NUL instead of LF to end each output records"),
+			    '\0'),
 		OPT_END(),
 	};
 

Junio C Hamano <gitster <at> pobox.com> writes:

I would rather see us go in the direction to add "-z" output option,
which is what everybody else that produces NUL terminated entries in
our suite of subcommands does.

I agree that -z would help in this case and I very much appreciate that
option when using diff --name-only, ls-files, etc.

However, when specifying a format string it's just a matter of ending
the format string in '%00' and you're good to go. But then you get the
null byte *and* a newline. And with your proposal there would be no way
of saying you want neither.

I expected the output to be formatted according to a (repetition of) the
format string, not some variation of it that I couldn't opt out of. But
I see that git-log also shows this behavior and already has a -z option,
so I guess that's fairly ingrained.

Maybe it's just me? In that case I've no problem with throwing in the
towel.

Øsse