python / python/cpython

netrc should be able to ignore some tokens like 'protocol'

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#123,735 12 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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stdlib type-feature
Dominant language
Python
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PR merge metrics
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Description

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

netrc._parse() rejects unknown tokens.

So far so good except some tools like git also use netrc files for authentication purposes through git-credential-netrc helper.

The issue is that git-credential-netrc expects a few other tokens like protocol that are currently rejected by netrc._parse()

It would be nice to be able to just ignore those tokens instead of failing the parsing of the netrc file.

I can't tell whether we should just register these exact tokens as "to be ignored", or if it would be better to have a way for netrc users to register the tokens they wish to ignore.

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

This is a minor feature, which does not need previous discussion elsewhere

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

none found.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the netrc._parse() entry point and inspect how the parser handles the protocol token used by git-credential-netrc. Done means a netrc containing such tokens is parsed without failure while existing parsing behavior remains intact.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
backend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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