bug#23422: stat -c %N returns strange results for file names including <TAB>

[Pádraig Brady]

On 02/05/16 15:27, Michael Albinus wrote:
> Eric Blake <address@hidden> writes:
>
> Hi Eric,
>
> > > I have a file called "foo<TAB>bar". Yes, it includes the <TAB> char in
> > > its name. When I call "stat -c %N", I get 'foo'$'\t''bar' .
> >
> > That is intentional; in the same vein as the way 'ls' changed its
> > default output for files with awkward characters.  The defaults are to
> > quote in a way that is reusable by shells that understand $'' quoting
> > (since POSIX will be adding support for it).  And you can always select
> > other quoting methods, via the QUOTING_STYLE environment variable.
>
> Thanks for the hint with QUOTING_STYLE. However, it doesn't work for me:
>
> # env QUOTING_STYLE=escape /usr/bin/stat -c %N /tmp/foo*
> '/tmp/foo'$'\t''bar'

Right, stat currently hard codes the "shell" style.
It probably makes sense to have this configurable.
I'll do that for the next release.

thanks,
Pádraig.