Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 3/3] cat-file: add --follow-symlinks to --batch

From: David Turner <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 18:31:11 -0400

On Mon, 2015-05-11 at 13:21 -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
[email-masked] writes:
> 
> > +--follow-symlinks::
> > +	Follow symlinks inside the repository.  Instead of providing
> > +	output about the link itself, provide output about the linked-to
> > +	object.  This option requires --batch or --batch-check.  In the
> > +	event of a symlink loop (or more than 40 symlinks in a symlink
> > +	resolution chain), the file will be treated as missing.  If a
> > +	symlink points outside the repository (e.g. a link to /foo or a
> > +	root-level link to ../foo), the portion of the link which is
> > +	outside the repository will be printed.  Follow-symlinks will
> > +	be silently turned off if <object> specifies an object in the
> > +	index rather than one in the object database.
> 
> One thing that I found is missing from the above and other places in
> the documents updated by this patch, when I pretend that I am an
> end-user who never saw the discussion for the problem definition and
> design of the solution on the list, is what "symlink" this refers
> to and how I am expected to use this feature.
> 
I'll send something like this when I re-roll:

Follow symlinks inside the repository when requesting objects with
extended SHA-1 expressions of the form tree-ish:path-in-tree. Instead of
providing output about the link itself, provide output about the
linked-to object.  This option requires --batch or	--batch-check.  In
the event of a symlink loop (or more than 40 symlinks in a symlink
resolution chain), the file will be treated as missing.  If a symlink
points outside the tree-ish (e.g. a link to /foo or a root-level link
to ../foo), the portion of the link which is outside the tree will be
printed. Follow-symlinks will be silently turned off if <object>
specifies an object in the index rather than one in the object database.

I could also provide some examples, if you think this would be useful.

> +If --follow-symlinks is used, and a symlink in the repository points
> > +outside the repository, then `cat-file` will ignore any custom
format
> > +and print:
> > +
> > +------------
> > +symlink SP <size> LF <symlink> LF
> > +------------
> 
> A symlink contain LF, obviously, and we should use some quoting
> convention.  Perhaps quote_c_style() on a string that needs it is
> sufficient---most sane people do not put LF or literally '\' 'n' or
> '"' in their symbolic links, so the ugly output is not visible for
> them, and it is far better to be able to say "If you have funny
> characters in your symlinks, they will be quoted" than "If you have
> funny characters in your symlinks, you are SOL".
> 
There is no need for quoting because <size> is sufficient to
disambiguate the parsing (just as is the case for blobs, which might
contain arbitrary characters).