Mac OS X mangles file names containing unicode on file systems HFS+,
VFAT or SAMBA. When a file using unicode code points outside ASCII
is created on a HFS+ drive, the file name is converted into
decomposed unicode and written to disk. No conversion is done if
the file name is already decomposed unicode.
Calling open("\xc3\x84", ...) with a precomposed "Ä" yields the same
result as open("\x41\xcc\x88",...) with a decomposed "Ä".
As a consequence, readdir() returns the file names in decomposed
unicode, even if the user expects precomposed unicode. Unlike on
HFS+, Mac OS X stores files on a VFAT drive (e.g. an USB drive) in
precomposed unicode, but readdir() still returns file names in
decomposed unicode. When a git repository is stored on a network
share using SAMBA, file names are send over the wire and written to
disk on the remote system in precomposed unicode, but Mac OS X
readdir() returns decomposed unicode to be compatible with its
behaviour on HFS+ and VFAT.
The unicode decomposition causes many problems:
- The names "git add" and other commands get from the end user may
often be precomposed form (the decomposed form is not easily input
from the keyboard), but when the commands read from the filesystem
to see what it is going to update the index with already is on the
filesystem, readdir() will give decomposed form, which is different.
- Similarly "git log", "git mv" and all other commands that need to
compare pathnames found on the command line (often but not always
precomposed form; a command line input resulting from globbing may
be in decomposed) with pathnames found in the tree objects (should
be precomposed form to be compatible with other systems and for
consistency in general).
- The same for names stored in the index, which should be
precomposed, that may need to be compared with the names read from
readdir().
NFS mounted from Linux is fully transparent and does not suffer from
the above.
As Mac OS X treats precomposed and decomposed file names as equal,
we can
- wrap readdir() on Mac OS X to return the precomposed form, and
- normalize decomposed form given from the command line also to the
precomposed form,
to ensure that all pathnames used in Git are always in the
precomposed form. This behaviour can be requested by setting
"core.precomposedunicode" configuration variable to true.
The code in compat/precomposed_utf8.c implements basically 4 new
functions: precomposed_utf8_opendir(), precomposed_utf8_readdir(),
precomposed_utf8_closedir() and precompose_argv(). The first three
are to wrap opendir(3), readdir(3), and closedir(3) functions.
The argv[] conversion allows to use the TAB filename completion done
by the shell on command line. It tolerates other tools which use
readdir() to feed decomposed file names into git.
When creating a new git repository with "git init" or "git clone",
"core.precomposedunicode" will be set "false".
The user needs to activate this feature manually. She typically
sets core.precomposedunicode to "true" on HFS and VFAT, or file
systems mounted via SAMBA.
Helped-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Torsten Bögershausen <tboegi@web.de>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
GIT - the stupid content tracker
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
"git" can mean anything, depending on your mood.
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not
actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a
mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the
dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually
works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an
unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations
and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License.
It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of
hackers around the net. It is currently maintained by Junio C Hamano.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
See Documentation/gittutorial.txt to get started, then see
Documentation/everyday.txt for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-commandname.txt for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with "man gittutorial" or "git help tutorial", and the
documentation of each command with "man git-commandname" or "git help
commandname".
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.txt
("man gitcvs-migration" or "git help cvs-migration" if git is
installed).
Many Git online resources are accessible from http://git-scm.com/
including full documentation and Git related tools.
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git
mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature
requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read
Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission).
To subscribe to the list, send an email with just "subscribe git" in
the body to majordomo@vger.kernel.org. The mailing list archives are
available at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=git and other archival
sites.
The messages titled "A note from the maintainer", "What's in
git.git (stable)" and "What's cooking in git.git (topics)" and
the discussion following them on the mailing list give a good
reference for project status, development direction and
remaining tasks.