[darcs-users] petition for '\0' to be removed from binary auto-detection code

Mark Stosberg mark at summersault.com
Mon Nov 15 18:06:21 UTC 2004


Hello,

While I like the idea of auto-detecting binary files, I realized that
'\0' (aka NUL) is not a good test. 

It it sometimes used (at least) in Perl to put a bunch of things into a string 
that you may want to separate back out later. The character is used
precisely because it doesn't occur in text.

In particular, it's still used in the modern "CGI.pm" library, to provide
compatibility with the ancient 'cgi-lib.pl' library. 

I tried to create this patch myself, but I couldn't figure out where
this logic was located. :) 

    Mark





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