Use alternative split char

[ratcashdev]

to solve #204

[BLumia]

Good catch but it seems it will make the existed config file no longer works, maybe do a character escape like \@ and unsecape it when using them instead of simply calling .split("@"); can be a better approach?

[ratcashdev]

@BLumia not sure. Wouldn't an escaped \@ still count as a @ when splitting? I am afraid it will.

As for existing config files... you're right. I have added backward compatibility in the latest commit.

[BLumia]

Looks okay for me, @justforlxz any suggestions?

@BLumia not sure. Wouldn't an escaped \@ still count as a @ when splitting? I am afraid it will.

In that case we cannot just simply do a split :)

As for existing config files... you're right. I have added backward compatibility in the latest commit.

Good, I'll check if | can be yet another usable character or not, then I think we can merge it :)

[BLumia]

I suggest use : as the separator if you don't want to use escaped character and do escape/unescape while read/write. Since both @ and | are valid to use in username. Try sudo useradd 'a|a' and sudo useradd 'a@a' and see the result.

Since /etc/passwd use : as separator, and sudo useradd 'a:a' will also give us a useradd: invalid user name 'a:a' output, I guess it can be safe to use : as the separator.

[BLumia]

Ah really sorry I forget IPv6 address can have :. Then I guess maybe we cannot continue use a simply split().

I guess the best way is continue using this format but only treat last two @ as valid separator or do string escape and unescape manually. What do you think?

[ratcashdev]

I think having a | is far less likely and problematic than anything else. Plus I still don't see how escaping would help. Care to explain?

[BLumia]

I think having a | is far less likely and problematic than anything else.

We're glad you found the @ split char issue. But since we now know there can be issue, we should avoid any possible case which can cause the same issue like using | or :. So IMO "far less likely and problematic than anything else" is also not acceptable.

Plus I still don't see how escaping would help. Care to explain?

A escaped string can be username\@[email protected]@port. Then we need to implement a simple split() function to do split only when it found a @ instead of \@. But it can be a little complex if we need also treat the escaped character\\.

A much simpler way to implement (instead of using the escaped/unescaped approach) is just treat last two @ as valid split char as I already said before, so there will be no problem with the original config file format, and easy to implement.

In string.split()there is a max_tokens argument to use. Since we need the last two @ as valid ones instead of first one, we can do a string.reverse() first before we call split(). Then after the split() call, just reverse() the splited strings back will be okay.

// pseudo code, *not* real vala code.
// reverse the original string, split.
server_infos = server_info.reverse().split("@", 3);
// reverse the result list. strings in the list still need to be reverse(). 
server_infos.reverse();
// reverse the strings inside the list.
server_infos.foreach ((entry) => {
	entry.reverse();
});

Or other ways can also works like just simply split with @ and string join all entries without the last two string. Or maybe you have any better approach which also works :)

[ratcashdev]

Possibly. Or BASE64 encode username/host and then we can use split with the current char (@).

[magynhard]

@BLumia i like your suggestion, it is backward compatible and also solves the original problem as well, without users needing to know, that they have to use special characters in that case. I think it's the most intuitve solutation.

@ratcashdev BASE64 is an approach, but will not work with old configuration files - you may introduce some patterns so ensure if the file is encoded or not and to do that at the next time you save the file. So the solution from @BLumia seems be an quick win.