Re: [PATCH RESEND v2 03/16] check_whence, WHENCE, copy-firmware: escape filenames with spaces

[Emil Velikov <emil.l.velikov@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 7 Mar 2023 at 18:00, Josh Boyer <jwboyer@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Mar 7, 2023 at 12:30 PM Emil Velikov <emil.l.velikov@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 7 Mar 2023 at 14:58, Josh Boyer <jwboyer@kernel.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 1:56 PM Emil Velikov via B4 Relay
> > > <devnull+emil.l.velikov.gmail.com@kernel.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > From: Emil Velikov <emil.l.velikov@gmail.com>
> > > >
> > > > We have a handful of instances which have space in the filename - just
> > > > escape them (like we do for the symlinks) and drop the extra re pattern.
> > > >
> > > > With this we can also drop the extra sed pattern, stripping out the
> > > > quotation marks.
> > >
> > > While that is all true, why is it necessary?  I suspect patch
> > > submitters are far more likely to forget to escape the spaces than
> > > they are to just include quotes.  I see this change as making it
> > > slightly harder to submit correct patches and I'm not sure it's worth
> > > it.
> > >
> >
> > We already have properly escaped paths in WHENCE, so it only makes
> > sense to fix the outliers.
>
> That's true if we believe escaped paths are the suggested way to do
> it.  I'm questioning if we really want that.
>
> If you're a firmware submitter, which is more natural to you?
>
> File: "foo bar with spaces.bin"
>
> or
>
> File: foo\ bar\ with\ spaces.bin
>

If I'm distracted I would use the following, which would be flagged by
check_whence.py and rectified immediately by skimming through WHENCE.
File: foo bar with spaces.bin

Although if I'm careful I would first grep through WHENCE for examples.

> Based on the number of occurrences in WHENCE, quoting the filename
> seems to be more prevalent.
>
> > Would you be in favour if check_whence.py checks for quoted files and
> > produces meaningful error message?
>
> Not really.  I don't understand why we have to force only one format.
> The code already supports both.  What is the benefit of dropping that?
>

Yes, escaped files are more common. And no the code does not support both.

Look at how Link: is handled. It fails miserably if either target or
link are quoted, regardless if they have space in the name.
Fixing that is an option, although since less than 1% is "quirky" it's
not worth adding any extra code. But fixing them instead.

Plus a mismatched quotation will (currently) lead to greater chaos, or
confusion if one is so inclined, IMHO.

Does that make sense?

-Emil