Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Paul Eggert]

Emacs master commit 2020-10-23T19:07:26Z!stefan@marxist.se 
(72c9d4bee112a7e44316b04f361cc4ad3b16cf76) introduced a file with this name:

test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq$tion

Unfortunately that '$' causes trouble when I run shell commands like this:

$ git log test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq$tion
fatal: ambiguous argument 
'test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq': unknown 
revision or path not in the working tree.
Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'

plus, I had problems when I ran shell scripts etc. to update copyright 
dates for 2021 and to merge emacs-27 into master.

I suggest renaming the file in the Emacs source tree. If the '$' is 
needed for a filename test, the test can create a file with that name; 
that should be less of a problem than having a '$' file in the repository.

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Andreas Schwab]

On Jan 01 2021, Paul Eggert wrote:

> Emacs master commit 2020-10-23T19:07:26Z!stefan@marxist.se
> (72c9d4bee112a7e44316b04f361cc4ad3b16cf76) introduced a file with this
> name:
>
> test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq$tion
>
> Unfortunately that '$' causes trouble when I run shell commands like this:
>
> $ git log test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq$tion

$ git log test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq\$tion

Andreas.

-- 
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."

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Paul Eggert]

On 1/1/21 2:31 AM, Andreas Schwab wrote:
> $ git log test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq\$tion

That solves that particular problem but the '$' caused other problems 
for me during the semiautomated process of updating the copyright.

POSIX excludes '$' from the list of characters in portable filenames 
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_282> 
and we'll avoid these hassles by sticking to the POSIX character set.

I can of course redo the scripts to handle '$' in filenames on GNU 
platforms. I could even hack them to handle other characters, too, like 
newline etc. in filenames. And others who deal with Emacs sources could 
do likewise. But that'd be a hassle and we all have better things to do.

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Andreas Schwab]

On Jan 01 2021, Paul Eggert wrote:

> On 1/1/21 2:31 AM, Andreas Schwab wrote:
>> $ git log test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq\$tion
>
> That solves that particular problem but the '$' caused other problems for
> me during the semiautomated process of updating the copyright.

Since the file already existed for over a year, that cannot be the
problem.

Andreas.

-- 
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."

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Paul Eggert]

On 1/1/21 9:10 AM, Andreas Schwab wrote:
> Since the file already existed for over a year, that cannot be the
> problem.

Every year is different and the scripts are ad hoc. This year I ran into 
a problem.

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Andreas Schwab]

On Jan 01 2021, Paul Eggert wrote:

> Every year is different and the scripts are ad hoc. This year I ran into a
> problem.

A good opportunity to make them more robust.

Andreas.

-- 
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."

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
> Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2021 08:54:38 -0800
> Cc: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>, Emacs Development <Emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> On 1/1/21 2:31 AM, Andreas Schwab wrote:
> > $ git log test/lisp/minibuffer-resources/data/minibuffer-test-cttq\$tion
> 
> That solves that particular problem but the '$' caused other problems 
> for me during the semiautomated process of updating the copyright.
> 
> POSIX excludes '$' from the list of characters in portable filenames 
> <https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_282> 
> and we'll avoid these hassles by sticking to the POSIX character set.
> 
> I can of course redo the scripts to handle '$' in filenames on GNU 
> platforms. I could even hack them to handle other characters, too, like 
> newline etc. in filenames. And others who deal with Emacs sources could 
> do likewise. But that'd be a hassle and we all have better things to do.

I think Paul is right, and we should rename that file.  It isn't an
important file, so renaming it shouldn't present problems we usually
try to avoid.

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Stefan Monnier]

> I suggest renaming the file in the Emacs source tree. If the '$' is needed
> for a filename test, the test can create a file with that name; that should
> be less of a problem than having a '$' file in the repository.

IIRC, I added this file for a completion test, where the $ is very much
needed (the test is about the use of $ in `read-file-name` where it can
be used for ENVVARs, it can be escaped by doubling it, and it stays
untouched in case it ends up not referring to an existing ENVVAR).

So feel free to rename it, but please be careful to change the tests so
they first rename it back to its "name with dollar in it".


        Stefan "who can't remember having problems with $ in file names"

Re: Suggest renaming Emacs source file with '$' in name

[Jean Louis]

* Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> [2021-01-03 06:38]:
> > I suggest renaming the file in the Emacs source tree. If the '$' is needed
> > for a filename test, the test can create a file with that name; that should
> > be less of a problem than having a '$' file in the repository.
> 
> IIRC, I added this file for a completion test, where the $ is very much
> needed (the test is about the use of $ in `read-file-name` where it can
> be used for ENVVARs, it can be escaped by doubling it, and it stays
> untouched in case it ends up not referring to an existing ENVVAR).
> 
> So feel free to rename it, but please be careful to change the tests so
> they first rename it back to its "name with dollar in it".
> 
> 
>         Stefan "who can't remember having problems with $ in file names"


Good reference on file names:
https://dwheeler.com/essays/fixing-unix-linux-filenames.html