| 1 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> |
| 2 |
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> |
| 3 |
|
|
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> |
| 4 |
|
|
<!-- |
| 5 |
|
|
This HTML is auto-generated. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! If you are writing a new |
| 6 |
|
|
PEP, see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0001.html for instructions and links |
| 7 |
|
|
to templates. DO NOT USE THIS HTML FILE AS YOUR TEMPLATE! |
| 8 |
|
|
--> |
| 9 |
|
|
<head> |
| 10 |
|
|
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> |
| 11 |
|
|
<meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.3.3: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/" /> |
| 12 |
|
|
<title>GLEP 31 -- Character Sets for Portage Tree Items</title> |
| 13 |
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="tools/glep.css" type="text/css" /> |
| 14 |
|
|
</head> |
| 15 |
|
|
<body bgcolor="white"> |
| 16 |
|
|
<table class="navigation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" |
| 17 |
|
|
width="100%" border="0"> |
| 18 |
|
|
<tr><td class="navicon" width="150" height="35"> |
| 19 |
|
|
<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/" title="Gentoo Linux Home Page"> |
| 20 |
|
|
<img src="http://www.gentoo.org/images/gentoo-new.gif" alt="[Gentoo]" |
| 21 |
|
|
border="0" width="150" height="35" /></a></td> |
| 22 |
|
|
<td class="textlinks" align="left"> |
| 23 |
|
|
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux Home</a></b>] |
| 24 |
|
|
[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep">GLEP Index</a></b>] |
| 25 |
|
|
[<b><a href="./glep-0031.txt">GLEP Source</a></b>] |
| 26 |
|
|
</td></tr></table> |
| 27 |
|
|
<div class="document"> |
| 28 |
|
|
<table class="rfc2822 field-list" frame="void" rules="none"> |
| 29 |
|
|
<col class="field-name" /> |
| 30 |
|
|
<col class="field-body" /> |
| 31 |
|
|
<tbody valign="top"> |
| 32 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">31</td> |
| 33 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 34 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Character Sets for Portage Tree Items</td> |
| 35 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 36 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td> |
| 37 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 38 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm at gentoo.org></td> |
| 39 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 40 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0031.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/10/28 17:00:22</a></td> |
| 41 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 42 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td> |
| 43 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 44 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td> |
| 45 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 46 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td> |
| 47 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 48 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">27-October-2004</td> |
| 49 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 50 |
|
|
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">28-October-2004</td> |
| 51 |
|
|
</tr> |
| 52 |
|
|
</tbody> |
| 53 |
|
|
</table> |
| 54 |
|
|
<hr /> |
| 55 |
|
|
<div class="contents topic" id="contents"> |
| 56 |
|
|
<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p> |
| 57 |
|
|
<ul class="simple"> |
| 58 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id7" name="id7">Abstract</a></li> |
| 59 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id8" name="id8">Motivation</a></li> |
| 60 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id9" name="id9">Specification</a><ul> |
| 61 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#changelog-and-metadata-character-sets" id="id10" name="id10">ChangeLog and Metadata Character Sets</a></li> |
| 62 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#ebuild-and-eclass-character-sets" id="id11" name="id11">Ebuild and Eclass Character Sets</a></li> |
| 63 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#files-entries-character-sets" id="id12" name="id12">files/ Entries Character Sets</a></li> |
| 64 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#suitable-characters-for-file-and-directory-names" id="id13" name="id13">Suitable Characters for File and Directory Names</a></li> |
| 65 |
|
|
</ul> |
| 66 |
|
|
</li> |
| 67 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id14" name="id14">Backwards Compatibility</a></li> |
| 68 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id15" name="id15">References</a></li> |
| 69 |
|
|
<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id16" name="id16">Copyright</a></li> |
| 70 |
|
|
</ul> |
| 71 |
|
|
</div> |
| 72 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="abstract"> |
| 73 |
|
|
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1> |
| 74 |
|
|
<p>A set of rules regarding what characters are permissible in the portage |
| 75 |
|
|
tree and how they should be encoded is required.</p> |
| 76 |
|
|
</div> |
| 77 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="motivation"> |
| 78 |
|
|
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1> |
| 79 |
|
|
<p>At present we have several developers and many more users whose names |
| 80 |
|
|
require characters (for example, accents) which are not part of the |
| 81 |
|
|
standard 'safe' 0..127 ASCII range. There is no current standard on how |
| 82 |
|
|
these should be represented, leading to inconsistency across the tree.</p> |
| 83 |
|
|
<p>Although the issues involved have been discussed many times informally, no |
| 84 |
|
|
official decision has been made.</p> |
| 85 |
|
|
</div> |
| 86 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="specification"> |
| 87 |
|
|
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="specification">Specification</a></h1> |
| 88 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="changelog-and-metadata-character-sets"> |
| 89 |
|
|
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="changelog-and-metadata-character-sets">ChangeLog and Metadata Character Sets</a></h2> |
| 90 |
|
|
<p>It is proposed that UTF-8 (<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id4" id="id1" name="id1">[1]</a>) is used for encoding ChangeLog and |
| 91 |
|
|
metadata.xml files inside the portage tree.</p> |
| 92 |
|
|
<p>UTF-8 allows the full range of Unicode (<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id5" id="id2" name="id2">[2]</a>) characters to be expressed, |
| 93 |
|
|
which is necessary given the diversity of the Gentoo developer- and |
| 94 |
|
|
user-base. It is character-compatible with ASCII for the 0..127 |
| 95 |
|
|
characters and does not significantly increase the storage requirements |
| 96 |
|
|
for files which consist mainly of American English characters. It is |
| 97 |
|
|
widely supported, widely used and an official standard.</p> |
| 98 |
|
|
<p>The ISO-8859-* character sets (<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id3" name="id3">[3]</a>) would <em>not</em> be appropriate since they |
| 99 |
|
|
cannot express the full range of required characters.</p> |
| 100 |
|
|
</div> |
| 101 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="ebuild-and-eclass-character-sets"> |
| 102 |
|
|
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="ebuild-and-eclass-character-sets">Ebuild and Eclass Character Sets</a></h2> |
| 103 |
|
|
<p>For the same reasons as previously, it is proposed that UTF-8 is used as |
| 104 |
|
|
the official encoding for ebuild and eclass files.</p> |
| 105 |
|
|
<p>However, developers should be warned that any output which is parsed by |
| 106 |
|
|
bash (in other words, non-comments), and any output which is echoed to the |
| 107 |
|
|
screen (for example, einfo messages) must not use anything outside the |
| 108 |
|
|
regular ASCII 0..127 range for compatibility purposes.</p> |
| 109 |
|
|
</div> |
| 110 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="files-entries-character-sets"> |
| 111 |
|
|
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="files-entries-character-sets">files/ Entries Character Sets</a></h2> |
| 112 |
|
|
<p>Patches must clearly be in the same character set as the file they are |
| 113 |
|
|
patching. For other files/ entries (for example, GNOME desktop files), |
| 114 |
|
|
consistency with the upstream-recommended character set is most sensible.</p> |
| 115 |
|
|
</div> |
| 116 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="suitable-characters-for-file-and-directory-names"> |
| 117 |
|
|
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="suitable-characters-for-file-and-directory-names">Suitable Characters for File and Directory Names</a></h2> |
| 118 |
|
|
<p>Characters outside the ASCII 0..127 range cannot safely be used for file |
| 119 |
|
|
or directory names. (Of course, not all characters inside the ASCII 0..127 |
| 120 |
|
|
range can be used safely either.)</p> |
| 121 |
|
|
</div> |
| 122 |
|
|
</div> |
| 123 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="backwards-compatibility"> |
| 124 |
|
|
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards Compatibility</a></h1> |
| 125 |
|
|
<p>The existing tree uses a mixture of encodings. It would be straightforward |
| 126 |
|
|
to fix existing ChangeLogs and metadata files to use UTF-8.</p> |
| 127 |
|
|
<p>The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">echangelog</span></tt> tool is character-set agnostic. In order to properly |
| 128 |
|
|
enter UTF-8, developers would have to switch to a UTF-8 shell session. |
| 129 |
|
|
This only applies if the developer is entering new text which uses 'fancy' |
| 130 |
|
|
characters -- existing characters are not mangled.</p> |
| 131 |
|
|
<p>Certain text editors are incapable of handling UTF-8 cleanly. However, |
| 132 |
|
|
since the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">echangelog</span></tt> tool is generally the correct way to generate |
| 133 |
|
|
ChangeLog entries, this should not be a major problem. Generating |
| 134 |
|
|
metadata.xml files correctly in these editors could become problematic. |
| 135 |
|
|
(The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">vim</span></tt> and <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">emacs</span></tt> editors, which appear to be most widely used, |
| 136 |
|
|
are both capable of handling UTF-8 cleanly.)</p> |
| 137 |
|
|
</div> |
| 138 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="references"> |
| 139 |
|
|
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="references">References</a></h1> |
| 140 |
|
|
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id4" rules="none"> |
| 141 |
|
|
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> |
| 142 |
|
|
<tbody valign="top"> |
| 143 |
|
|
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id1" name="id4">[1]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3629.html">RFC 3629</a>: UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646 |
| 144 |
|
|
<a class="reference" href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3629.txt">http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3629.txt</a></td></tr> |
| 145 |
|
|
</tbody> |
| 146 |
|
|
</table> |
| 147 |
|
|
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id5" rules="none"> |
| 148 |
|
|
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> |
| 149 |
|
|
<tbody valign="top"> |
| 150 |
|
|
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id2" name="id5">[2]</a></td><td>ISO/IEC 10646 (Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set)</td></tr> |
| 151 |
|
|
</tbody> |
| 152 |
|
|
</table> |
| 153 |
|
|
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id6" rules="none"> |
| 154 |
|
|
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup> |
| 155 |
|
|
<tbody valign="top"> |
| 156 |
|
|
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id3" name="id6">[3]</a></td><td>ISO/IEC 8859 (8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets)</td></tr> |
| 157 |
|
|
</tbody> |
| 158 |
|
|
</table> |
| 159 |
|
|
</div> |
| 160 |
|
|
<div class="section" id="copyright"> |
| 161 |
|
|
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1> |
| 162 |
|
|
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p> |
| 163 |
|
|
<blockquote> |
| 164 |
|
|
vim: set tw=74 fileencoding=utf-8 :</blockquote> |
| 165 |
|
|
</div> |
| 166 |
|
|
</div> |
| 167 |
|
|
|
| 168 |
|
|
<hr class="footer" /> |
| 169 |
|
|
<div class="footer"> |
| 170 |
|
|
<a class="reference" href="glep-0031.txt">View document source</a>. |
| 171 |
|
|
Generated on: 2004-10-28 16:53 UTC. |
| 172 |
|
|
Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source. |
| 173 |
|
|
</div> |
| 174 |
|
|
</body> |
| 175 |
|
|
</html> |