Unix would be better if filenames could not contain newlines. But they can, and so today was spent dealing with some technical debt.

The main problem with using git-annex with filenames with newlines is that git cat-file --batch uses a line-based protocol. It would be nice if that were extended to support -z like most of the rest of git does, but I realized I could work around this by not using batch mode for the rare filename with a newline. Handling such files will be slower than other files, but at least it will work.

Then I realized that git-annex has its own problems with its --batch option and files with newlines. So I added support for -z to every batchable command in git-annex, including a couple of commands that did batch input without a --batch option.

Now git-annex should fully support filenames containing newlines, as well as anything else. The best thing to do if you have such a file is to commit it and then git mv it to a better name.

Today's work was sponsored by Trenton Cronholm on Patreon.