When chainlint detects problems in a test, such as a broken &&-chain, it
prints out the test with "?!FOO?!" annotations inserted at each problem
location. However, rather than annotating the original test definition,
it instead dumps out a parsed token representation of the test. Since it
lacks comments, indentations, here-doc bodies, and so forth, this
tokenized representation can be difficult for the test author to digest
and relate back to the original test definition.
However, now that each parsed token carries positional information, the
location of a detected problem can be pinpointed precisely in the
original test definition. Therefore, take advantage of this information
to annotate the test definition itself rather than annotating the parsed
token stream, thus making it easier for a test author to relate a
problem back to the source.
Maintaining the positional meta-information associated with each
detected problem requires a slight change in how the problems are
managed internally. In particular, shell syntax such as:
msg="total: $(cd data; wc -w *.txt) words"
requires the lexical analyzer to recursively invoke the parser in order
to detect problems within the $(...) expression inside the double-quoted
string. In this case, the recursive parse context will detect the broken
&&-chain between the `cd` and `wc` commands, returning the token stream:
cd data ; ?!AMP?! wc -w *.txt
However, the parent parse context will see everything inside the
double-quotes as a single string token:
"total: $(cd data ; ?!AMP?! wc -w *.txt) words"
losing whatever positional information was attached to the ";" token
where the problem was detected.
One way to preserve the positional information of a detected problem in
a recursive parse context within a string would be to attach the
positional information to the annotation textually; for instance:
"total: $(cd data ; ?!AMP:21:22?! wc -w *.txt) words"
and then extract the positional information when annotating the original
test definition.
However, a cleaner and much simpler approach is to maintain the list of
detected problems separately rather than embedding the problems as
annotations directly in the parsed token stream. Not only does this
ensure that positional information within recursive parse contexts is
not lost, but it keeps the token stream free from non-token pollution,
which may simplify implementation of validations added in the future
since they won't have to handle non-token "?!FOO!?" items specially.
Finally, the chainlint self-test "expect" files need a few mechanical
adjustments now that the original test definitions are emitted rather
than the parsed token stream. In particular, the following items missing
from the historic parsed-token output are now preserved verbatim:
* indentation (and whitespace, in general)
* comments
* here-doc bodies
* here-doc tag quoting (i.e. "\EOF")
* line-splices (i.e. "\" at the end of a line)
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Because `sed` is line-oriented, for ease of implementation, when
chainlint.sed encounters an opening subshell in which the first command
is cuddled with the "(", it splits the line into two lines: one
containing only "(", and the other containing whatever follows "(".
This allows chainlint.sed to get by with a single set of regular
expressions for matching shell statements rather than having to
duplicate each expression (one set for matching non-cuddled statements,
and one set for matching cuddled statements).
However, although syntactically and semantically immaterial, this
transformation has no value to test authors and might even confuse them
into thinking that the linter is misbehaving by inserting (whitespace)
line-noise into the shell code it is validating. Moreover, it also
allows an implementation detail of chainlint.sed to seep into the
chainlint self-test "expect" files, which potentially makes it difficult
to reuse the self-tests should a more capable chainlint ever be
developed.
To address these concerns, stop splitting cuddled "(..." into two lines.
Note that, as an implementation artifact, due to sed's line-oriented
nature, this change inserts a blank line at output time just before the
"(..." line is emitted. It would be possible to suppress this blank line
but doing so would add a fair bit of complexity to chainlint.sed.
Therefore, rather than suppressing the extra blank line, the Makefile's
`check-chainlint` target which runs the chainlint self-tests is instead
modified to ignore blank lines when comparing chainlint output against
the self-test "expect" output. This is a reasonable compromise for two
reasons. First, the purpose of the chainlint self-tests is to verify
that the ?!AMP?! annotations are being correctly added; precise
whitespace is immaterial. Second, by necessity, chainlint.sed itself
already throws away all blank lines within subshells since, when
checking for a broken &&-chain, it needs to check the final _statement_
in a subshell, not the final _line_ (which might be blank), thus it has
never made any attempt to precisely reproduce blank lines in its output.
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
chainlint.sed inserts a ">" annotation at the beginning of a line to
signal that its heuristics have identified an end-of-subshell. This was
useful as a debugging aid during development of the script, but it has
no value to test writers and might even confuse them into thinking that
the linter is misbehaving by inserting line-noise into the shell code it
is validating. Moreover, its presence also potentially makes it
difficult to reuse the chainlint self-test "expect" output should a more
capable linter ever be developed. Therefore, drop the ">" annotation.
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
When chainlint.sed detects a broken &&-chain, it places an ?!AMP?!
annotation at the beginning of the line. However, this is an unusual
location for programmers accustomed to error messages (from compilers,
for instance) indicating the exact point of the problem. Therefore,
relocate the ?!AMP?! annotation to the end of the line in order to
better direct the programmer's attention to the source of the problem.
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
The --chain-lint option uses heuristics and knowledge of shell syntax to
detect broken &&-chains in subshells by pure textual inspection. The
heuristics handle a range of stylistic variations in existing tests
(evolved over the years), however, they are still best-guesses. As such,
it is possible for future changes to accidentally break assumptions upon
which the heuristics are based. Protect against this possibility by
adding tests which check the linter itself for correctness.
In addition to protecting against regressions, these tests help document
(for humans) expected behavior, which is important since the linter's
implementation language ('sed') does not necessarily lend itself to easy
comprehension.
Signed-off-by: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
