Subject: Re: [PATCHv3 4/5] Git.pm: add interface for git credential command

From: Michal Nazarewicz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:14:24 +0100

On Mon, Feb 11 2013, Jeff King wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 05:23:38PM +0100, Michal Nazarewicz wrote:
>
>> +=item credential_read( FILE_HANDLE )
>> +
>> +Reads credential key-value pairs from C<FILE_HANDLE>.  Reading stops at EOF or
>> +when an empty line is encountered.  Each line must be of the form C<key=value>
>> +with a non-empty key.  Function returns a hash with all read values.  Any
>> +white space (other then new-line character) is preserved.
>> +
>> +=cut
>> +
>> +sub credential_read {
>> +	my ($self, $reader) = _maybe_self(@_);
>> +	my %credential;
>> +	while (<$reader>) {
>> +		chomp;
>> +		if ($_ eq '') {
>> +			last;
>> +		} elsif (!/^([^=]+)=(.*)$/) {
>> +			throw Error::Simple("unable to parse git credential data:\n$_");
>> +		}
>> +		$credential{$1} = $2;
>> +	}
>> +	return %credential;
>> +}
>
> Should this return a hash reference? It seems like that is how we end up
> using and passing it elsewhere (since we have to anyway when passing it
> as a parameter).

Admittedly I mostly just copied what git-remote-mediawiki did here and
don't really have any preference either way, even though with this
function returning a reference the call site would have to become:

                %$credential = %{ credential_read $reader };

Another alternative would be for it to take a reference as an argument,
possibly an optional one:

+sub credential_read {
+	my ($self, $reader, $ret) = (_maybe_self(@_), {});
+	my %credential;
+	while (<$reader>) {
+		# ...
+	}
+	%$ret = %credential;
+	$ret;
+}

I'd avoid modifying the hash while reading though since I think it's
best if it's left intact in case of an error.

And of course, if we want to get even more crazy, credential_write could
accept either reference or a hash, like so:

+sub credential_write {
+	my ($self, $writer, @rest) = _maybe_self(@_);
+	my $credential = @rest == 1 ? $rest[0] : { @rest };
+	my ($key, $value);
+	# ...
+}

Bottom line is, anything can be coded, but a question is whether it
makes sense to do so. ;)

-- 
Best regards,                                         _     _
.o. | Liege of Serenely Enlightened Majesty of      o' \,=./ `o
..o | Computer Science,  Michał “mina86” Nazarewicz    (o o)
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