bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

[Sam Steingold]

Hi, 

Since at least 1996-12-08 (3415b0e9d2a), user-full-name has had the
following code:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
  /* Chop off everything after the first comma. */
  q = strchr (p, ',');
  full = make_string (p, q ? q - p : strlen (p));
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The result is that when full name is specified in the system as
"Steingold, Sam", `user-full-name' returns "Steingold".

Are we really sure that this is still the intended behavior?
If yes, we might want to document it in the doc string and info.

Thank you.


In GNU Emacs 29.0.50 (build 4, x86_64-apple-darwin20.6.0, NS appkit-2022.60 Version 11.6.2 (Build 20G314))
 of 2021-12-20 built on 3c22fb11fdab.ant.amazon.com
Repository revision: 92ffe44834b8f77ee3f4d37edfdb19f30a376869
Repository branch: master
Windowing system distributor 'Apple', version 10.3.2022
System Description:  macOS 11.6.2

Configured using:
 'configure --with-imagemagick --with-mailutils --with-ns
 PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/opt/libxml2/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/imagemagick/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/gnutls/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/jansson/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libtiff/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libpng/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libjpeg/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/freetype/lib/pkgconfig'

Configured features:
ACL GIF GMP GNUTLS IMAGEMAGICK JPEG JSON LCMS2 LIBXML2 MODULES NOTIFY
KQUEUE NS PDUMPER PNG SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS WEBP ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: C
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.2022
http://childpsy.net http://calmchildstories.com http://steingoldpsychology.com
https://www.peaceandtolerance.org/ https://ij.org/ http://think-israel.org
recursion, n: See recursion.

bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Sam Steingold <sds@gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2021 14:35:00 -0500
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>   /* Chop off everything after the first comma. */
>   q = strchr (p, ',');
>   full = make_string (p, q ? q - p : strlen (p));
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> The result is that when full name is specified in the system as
> "Steingold, Sam", `user-full-name' returns "Steingold".
> 
> Are we really sure that this is still the intended behavior?

Yes, I think so.

> If yes, we might want to document it in the doc string and info.

Feel free to suggest a documentation patch.

bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

[Sam Steingold]

> * Eli Zaretskii <ryvm@tah.bet> [2021-12-24 21:52:16 +0200]:
>
>> From: Sam Steingold <sds@gnu.org>
>> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2021 14:35:00 -0500
>> 
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>>   /* Chop off everything after the first comma. */
>>   q = strchr (p, ',');
>>   full = make_string (p, q ? q - p : strlen (p));
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>> 
>> The result is that when full name is specified in the system as
>> "Steingold, Sam", `user-full-name' returns "Steingold".
>> 
>> Are we really sure that this is still the intended behavior?
>
> Yes, I think so.

Why?

>> If yes, we might want to document it in the doc string and info.
>
> Feel free to suggest a documentation patch.

Sure, as soon as I understand the reason for this behavior (because it
has to be included in the doc!)

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.2022
http://childpsy.net http://calmchildstories.com http://steingoldpsychology.com
https://ij.org/ https://ffii.org https://mideasttruth.com
Daddy, why doesn't this magnet pick up this floppy disk?

bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

[Andreas Schwab]

See <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecos_field>.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 7578 EB47 D4E5 4D69 2510  2552 DF73 E780 A9DA AEC1
"And now for something completely different."

bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Sam Steingold <sds@gnu.org>
> Cc: 52785@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2021 15:04:38 -0500
> 
> >> The result is that when full name is specified in the system as
> >> "Steingold, Sam", `user-full-name' returns "Steingold".
> >> 
> >> Are we really sure that this is still the intended behavior?
> >
> > Yes, I think so.
> 
> Why?

Because we have been doing that since 1996.

> > Feel free to suggest a documentation patch.
> 
> Sure, as soon as I understand the reason for this behavior (because it
> has to be included in the doc!)

It doesn't.  (I could hypothesize about the reasons, but I'd rather
not.)

bug#52785: 29.0.50; user-full-name: "Chop off everything after the first comma"

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,  52785@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2021 21:22:00 +0100
> 
> See <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecos_field>.

Thanks, I've now updated the doc string with this information, and I'm
closing the bug.