Re: [GSoC RFC PATCH v4 2/4] repo: add the field references.format

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2025 at 09:04:40AM -0500, Justin Tobler wrote:
> On 25/07/16 07:38AM, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 02:15:07PM -0500, Justin Tobler wrote:
> > > Also, as mentioned in a comment for the previous patch, maybe we should
> > > support printing two output modes. For the default output, maybe a
> > > simple `<key>=<value>\n` where the any value containing special
> > > characters is quoted via `quote_c_style()`.
> > > 
> > > A null-terminated output, such as the one proposed in this patch, could
> > > be enabled via a `-z` flag similar to how its done in other commands.
> > 
> > Agreed in general, but instead of using `-z` I wonder whether it would
> > make sense to use something like `--format=key-value` and `--format=nul`
> > instead. This gives us more room to introduce additional formats in the
> > future, like for example the JSON format that was scrapped for now.
> 
> If we already plan to support additional output formats, they I agree we
> should probably a `--format=<output-type>` flag from the start. I still
> think it would be nice to have a `-z` flag that is shorthand for
> `--format=nul` though as that is fairly common across other commands to
> have such an option.
> 
> Out of curiousity, is there a reason we are interested in supporting a
> JSON output format in addition to what is already proposed? From an
> earlier conversation I had with Lucas, it didn't seem like there was any
> particular reason for JSON.

I don't care much about the JSON output format. What I do care about is
to have a default format that we are free to iterate on, especially in
the context of `git repo size`. If we ever want to have output that is
as user friendly as git-sizer(1)'s we need to have that freedom.

From my perspective that necessitates two things:

  - That we are able to change formats with a proper `--format=` flag.
    `-z` alone doesn't fit that bill, as we are already talking about
    there formats: user friendly, key-value pairs, and key-value pairs
    with NUL termination.

    That being said I'm not opposed to also have `-z` as an alias as
    long as we also have `--format=`.

  - That the _default_ format is the user friendly format that we can
    iterate on, at least for `git repo size`. Otherwise we have already
    failed on our mission to supply a user-friendly alternative to
    git-sizer(1).

Patrick