On Tue, 19 May 2026 at 16:27, Timofei Zhakov <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Mon, May 18, 2026 at 10:58 PM Timofei Zhakov <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Long time has passed since it was coded. So to refresh the context,
> > whether you were following or not, the utf8-cmdline branch makes the
> > command-line tools to first convert entire argv into UTF-8 and then
> > assume normalised strings when handling parameters. A work that
> > minimises the amount of potentially forgotten-to-convert strings and
> > brings support for all Unicode symbols in the cmdline on Windows which
> > is impossible right now.
> >
> > There is a test called basic_tests.py:argv_with_best_fit_chars. It
> > checks that svn rejects Unicode symbols. Functionality which was
> > illegal before changes introduced in that branch.
> >
> > I believe the correct solution would be to adjust test cases to expect
> > successful execution instead of an error. I've tried to implement that
> > before by changing arguments in run_and_verify_svn2, but it made me
> > stuck... I kept getting an error message coming from the logger (?)
> > that it struggles to convert output to print it.
> >
> > I really lack expertise with Python and svn-test to figure out the
> > correct way to do it. Could anyone who knows it better than I do step
> > ahead and maybe give it a fresh look from another perspective?
> >
> > It's basically the last thing that keeps us from getting this branch
> > merged so far. I think it's time we finalise it.
> >
> > Alternatively I think we might remove that test as "outdated" because
> > it checks an edge case which is now completely normal after the
> > utf8ization. I would personally prefer the other option, but it's
> > worth mentioning this possibility as well.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > On Sat, May 16, 2026 at 3:06 PM Timofei Zhakov <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Fri, May 15, 2026 at 4:02 PM Jun Omae <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On 2026/05/15 0:28, Timofei Zhakov wrote:
> > > > > There is a test called basic_tests.py:argv_with_best_fit_chars. It
> > > > > checks that svn rejects Unicode symbols. Functionality which was
> > > > > illegal before changes introduced in that branch.
> > > >
> > > > In the branch, svn command receives the arguments as utf-8 bytes,
> but the
> > > > output of the pipe is applied best-fit encoding conversion.
> > > >
> > > > [[[
> > > > (diff is truncated)
> > > > ]]]
> > >
> > > I tested this patch and can confirm that it works. I don't know why
> > > but as far as I remember I was doing exactly the same thing, but it
> > > didn't work for me.
> > >
> > > I remember I once heard that "everything looks like physics if you
> > > don't know magic". That's exactly the case. Sometimes we just need a
> > > pair of fresh eyes. :-)
> > >
> > > +1 for the changes
> > >
> > > > Recently, I'm trying 1.14.x with utf-8 code page using activeCodePage
> > > > manifest [1]. It almost works fine (e.g. add emoji filenames and
> checkout,
> > > > ...) however output to stderr is garbled and not fixed yet.
> > > >
> > > > [1]
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/globalizing/use-utf8-code-page
> > >
> > > That sounds interesting. If as you are saying output is converted to
> > > the local encoding, it introduces a lot of inconsistency and yeah we
> > > have no emojis.
> > >
> > > Since it's almost always that the encoding is UTF-8 on the majority of
> > > Unix systems, I think it makes a lot of sense to take the same
> > > approach on Windows.
> >
> > I saw you committed the patch in r1934334. Thank you so much!
> >
> > I guess the CI is back to green! I'll post an email on dev@ about
> > merging the branch into trunk.
>
> Hey guys!
>
> I believe that it's time we merge the utf8-cmdline branch. I've
> already written the merge log message and pasted it below. Hope there
> is nothing missing because it ended up being pretty massive.
>
> +1.

I agree that the change is massive. However, on trunk we're just at the
beginning of the (1.16.x) release cycle, so it's probably the most
appropriate moment of time to make a change like this.

I have tested the branch on Windows: works great for me.

I also reviewed the code and didn't find any problems. Please find some
minor comments inline.

[[[
> Switch command-line programs to UTF-8 mode.
>
> Merging from branch utf8-cmdline-prototype.
>
> The Subversion library internally works with UTF-8 encoded strings which
> simplifies it a lot.  However, commands-line programs receive arguments in
> local encoding (cstring).  Before this change, we used to convert encoding
> as
>

Nitpick: "local**e** encoding".


> we handle each individual argument.  But this approach has several
> limitations;
>
> 1)  It's easy to miss some conversions since we need to constantly keep it
> in
> mind that the arguments are in non-UTF-8 encoding, unlike the majority of
> codebase assumes.  Let's keep it consistent and simple.
>
> 2)  Even though we could perfectly handle Non-ASCII (Unicode) strings in
> UTF-8
> encoding under the hood, cstring squishes them to allow ASCII-only data.
> Switching command-line to UTF-8 would remove that layer of converting input
> data back and forth, which means direct conversions from UTF-16 to UTF-8
> without any complications.
>
> Recently, we added a family of svn_cmdline__get_cstring_argv() function to
> resolve an issue with inconsistent encoding of what we assumed was cstring.
> Now, it's time to get into UTF-8, so we are introducing
> svn_cmdline__get_utf8_argv() for that.  It uses
> svn_utf__win32_utf16_to_utf8()
> on Windows, and svn_utf_cstring_to_utf8() on Unix.
>
> This branch should not bring any behaviour changes on Unix, while Windows
> code
> now supports Unicode command-line arguments.
>
> * subversion/include/private/svn_cmdline_private.h
>   (svn_cmdline__win32_get_utf8_argv, svn_cmdline__default_get_utf8_argv):
>    Declare methods.
>   (svn_cmdline__get_utf8_argv): New define.
>
> * subversion/include/svn_client.h
>   (svn_client_args_to_target_array3): Declare new functions that do not
>    perform UTF-8 conversion unlike its old variant.
>   (svn_client_args_to_target_array2): Deprecate.
>
> * subversion/include/svn_opt.h
>   (svn_opt_args_to_target_array4, svn_opt_parse_revprop2): Declare new
>    functions that do not perform UTF-8 conversion unlike their old variant.
>   (svn_opt_args_to_target_array3, svn_opt_parse_revprop): Deprecate.
>
> * subversion/libsvn_client/client.h
>   (svn_client__process_target_array): Declare new private function to put
>    common code of target collection to later use in either UTF8 or non-UTF8
>    versions.
>
> * subversion/libsvn_client/cmdline.c
>   (svn_client__process_target_array): Implement function, using body of
>    former svn_client_args_to_target_array2() function.
>   (svn_client_args_to_target_array3): Implement by forwarding targets to
>    svn_client__process_target_array() as they are without any conversions.
>
> * subversion/libsvn_client/deprecated.c
>   (svn_client_args_to_target_array2): Implement backward compatibility
>    function in a similar way as svn_client_args_to_target_array3(), but
> also
>    converting targets to UTF8 encoding.
>
> * subversion/libsvn_subr/cmdline.c
>   (svn_cmdline__win32_get_utf8_argv): New function that receives a
> collection
>    of argv in local Windows encoding and converts them to UTF8 using
>    svn_utf__win32_utf16_to_utf8.
>   (svn_cmdline__default_get_utf8_argv): New function that ensures the exact
>    same behaviour in terms of encoding conversions performed as our
>    command-line code used to do it before on Unix platforms since it is
> backed
>    by svn_utf_cstring_to_utf8().
>
> * subversion/libsvn_subr/deprecated.c
>   (svn_opt_args_to_target_array3): Use svn_opt_parse_all_args() method to
> back
>    the implementation.
>   (svn_opt_parse_revprop): Implement wrapper over svn_opt_parse_revprop2
> with
>    UTF8 conversion.
>
> * subversion/libsvn_subr/opt.c
>   (svn_opt__args_to_target_array): New function implementation.
>   (svn_opt_parse_revprop2): Bump version and remove UTF8 conversion.
>
> * subversion/svn/auth-cmd.c
> * subversion/svn/propdel-cmd.c
> * subversion/svn/propedit-cmd.c
> * subversion/svn/propget-cmd.c
> * subversion/svn/propset-cmd.c
> * subversion/svn/shelf-cmd.c
> * subversion/svn/shelf2-cmd.c
>   (svn_cl__auth,
>    svn_cl__changelist,
>    svn_cl__propdel,
>    svn_cl__propedit,
>    svn_cl__propget,
>    svn_cl__propedit,
>    svn_cl__propget,
>    svn_cl__propset,
>    get_next_argument): Remove conversion to UTF8 encoding of target
> arguments.
>
> * subversion/svn/svn.c
>   (parse_compatible_version): Do not convert the encoding of value of the
>    opt_compatible_version argument.
>
>   (sub_main): Use svn_cmdline__get_utf8_argv instead of
>    svn_cmdline__get_cstring_argv to get normalized arguments.
>   (sub_main): Read opt_arg directly to utf8_opt_arg and remove all
> conversion
>    from cstring to UTF8.
>   (sub_main): For some options which want cstring, convert utf8_opt_arg
> back.
>    Those include --diff-cmd, --merge-cmd, and --editor-cmd.
>   (sub_main): Use a newer version of svn_opt_parse_revprop,
> svn_opt_parse_revprop
>    which does not convert strings to UTF8.
>   (sub_main): Do not utf8-ize first_arg.
>   (sub_main): Do not convert the message to UTF8.
>
> * subversion/svn/util.c subversion/svn/util.c
>   (svn_cl__make_log_msg_baton): Consider --encoding argument only when the
>    message is read from a file, keeping it in UTF8 when --message is
> utilised
>    instead.
>
>   (svn_cl__args_to_target_array_print_reserved): Use
>    svn_client_args_to_target_array3 instead of
> svn_client_args_to_target_array2,
>    which doesn't convert result to utf8, since we are working with already
>    converted 'os'.
>
> * subversion/svnadmin/svnadmin.c
>   (parse_args): No need to command-line arguments to UTF8.
>   (set_revprop): Explicitly state UTF8 encoding when invoking the
>    svn_subst_translate_string2() since the arguments should already be in
> this
>    encoding.  This ensures that no double conversion would be done.
>   (subcommand_lslocks): Use svn_opt_args_to_target_array4() instead of
>    svn_opt_args_to_target_array3() to retrieve targets which does not
> convert
>    encodings.
>   (sub_main): Use svn_cmdline__get_utf8_argv() instead of
>   svn_cmdline__get_cstring_argv() to get UTF8 argv.
>   (sub_main): Read opt_arg directly to utf8_opt_arg and remove all
> conversion
>    from cstring to UTF8.
>   (sub_main): Do not utf8-ize first_arg.
>
> * subversion/svnbench/svnbench.c
>   (sub_main): Convert args straight to UTF8, remove in-place conversions,
> and
>    silently migrate to handle the other arguments as UTF8.
>
> * subversion/svnbench/null-list-cmd.c
>   (includes): Remove svn_utf.h to make sure no more UTF8 conversions are
> done.
>
> * subversion/svnbench/util.c
>   (svn_cl__args_to_target_array_print_reserved): Use newer version of
>    svn_client_args_to_target_array(), which doesn't perform UTF8 conversion
>
>   (sub_main): Directly convert argv to UTF8 and remove all following
>    conversions.
>
> * subversion/svnlook/svnlook.c
>   (print_diff_tree): Don't convert diff_options to UTF8 twice.
>   (sub_main): Convert args straight to UTF8, remove in-place conversions,
> and
>    handle the other arguments as UTF8.
>
> * subversion/svnfsfs/svnfsfs.c
> * subversion/svnmucc/svnmucc.c
> * subversion/svndumpfilter/svndumpfilter.c
> * subversion/svnrdump/svnrdump.c
> * subversion/svnserve/svnserve.c
> * subversion/svnversion/svnversion.c
> * tools/client-side/svn-mergeinfo-normalizer/svn-mergeinfo-normalizer.c
> * tools/client-side/svnconflict/svnconflict.c
> * tools/dev/svnraisetreeconflict/svnraisetreeconflict.c
> * tools/dev/wc-ng/svn-wc-db-tester.c
> * tools/server-side/svnauthz.c
>   (includes): Remove svn_utf8.h where possible as we no longer use its
>    functions.
>   (sub_main): Convert all args straight to UTF8 and remove later
> conversion.
>
> * subversion/svnsync/svnsync.c
>   (initialize_cmd, synchronize_cmd, copy_revprops_cmd, info_cmd): Use
>    svn_opt_args_to_target_array4() instead of
> svn_opt_args_to_target_array3()
>    and remove svn_utf_cstring_to_utf8() calls.
>
>   (sub_main): Convert args straight to UTF8, remove in-place conversions,
> and
>    handle the other arguments as UTF8.
>
> * subversion/tests/cmdline/svntest/testcase.py
>   (_detect_utf8_locale): New local helper.
>   (RequireUtf8_deco): Add RequireUtf8 decorator that allows test to be run
> in
>    UTF8 environment to fix failures on Unix platforms.
>
> * subversion/tests/cmdline/basic_tests.py
>   (): Import RequireUtf8 decorator from testcase.py
>   (argv_with_best_fit_chars):
>    Adapt the unit test to the arguments in utf-8 bytes.
>   (unicode_arguments_test): Use that RequireUtf8 decorator to force the
> test to
>    run in the UTF8 environment.
>
> * subversion/tests/libsvn_subr/opt-test.c
>   (includes): Add svn_hash.h.
>   (test_svn_opt_parse_revprop): Add new test.
>

Probably it would be better to #undef  UNICODE_TEST_STRING or just inline
it.

  (test_funcs): Run the test.
> ]]]
>
> I'm happy to receive some review.
>
>
I am +1 to merge utf8-cmdline branch to trunk.

-- 
Ivan Zhakov

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