Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 2/9] config tests: add "NULL" tests for *_get_value_multi()

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2023 15:12:42 -0800

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason  <[email-masked]> writes:

> A less well known edge case in the config format is that keys can be
> value-less, a shorthand syntax for "true" boolean keys. I.e. these two
> are equivalent as far as "--type=bool" is concerned:
>
> 	[a]key
> 	[a]key = true
>
> But as far as our parser is concerned the values for these two are
> NULL, and "true". I.e. for a sequence like:
>
> 	[a]key=x
> 	[a]key
> 	[a]key=y
>
> We get a "struct string_list" with "string" members with ".string"
> values of:
>
> 	{ "x", NULL, "y" }
>
> This behavior goes back to the initial implementation of
> git_config_bool() in 17712991a59 (Add ".git/config" file parser,
> 2005-10-10).
>
> When parts of the config_set API were tested for in [1] they didn't
> add coverage for 3/4 of the "(NULL)" cases handled in
> "t/helper/test-config.c". We'd test that case for "get_value", but not
> "get_value_multi", "configset_get_value" and
> "configset_get_value_multi".
>
> We now cover all of those cases, which in turn expose the details of
> how this part of the config API works.

Good to see a better coverage.

With the "last one wins" semantics for half of these 4 cases, it may
make sense to further extend the tests to cover cases where the last
one is a valueless true, in addition to what is used in this patch
(i.e. a valueless true in the middle of three).

Thanks.