Re: config.nix validation?

Alyssa Ross
2025-11-09T21:10:43Z

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Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:

> On 11/9/25 06:13, Alyssa Ross wrote:
>> Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Should the values from config.nix be validated in any way? They are
>>> obviously trusted, but it is very easy for the users to make mistakes
>>> that could cause extremely confusing problems. For instance, the
>>> update patch doesn't support URLs with a query string or a fragment
>>> specifier. In fact, such URLs could get mangled. There are other
>>> URLs that tools like curl will accept but which will break the build.
>>>
>>> Should these be validated with regular expressions before use?
>>> That will result in build-time errors that at least somewhat point
>>> to the source of the problem, rather than mysterious build-time or
>>> runtime misbehavior.
>>
>> Is there a way we could prevent those URLs getting mangled?
>
> Only with some additional complexity. The URLs for SHA256SUMS and
> SHA256SUMS.gpg are built by string concatenation, which breaks if there
> is query string or fragment identifier. Also, certain characters in
> URLs will cause globbing in curl. These characters are invalid and
> should have been %-encoded.
>
>> Assuming no, we don't know of anybody currently using the configuration
>> mechanism, so I wouldn't spend much time on it personally, but that
>> doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't. Do it in separate patches
>> at least though so it doesn't hold up higher priority stuff.
>
> The updater requires the configuration mechanism to work. Therefore,
> I expect it to be used much more frequently in the future. The only
> sensible defaults are those used by Spectrum itself, and the
> corresponding URLs and signing keys don't exist yet.
>
> Should these patches be part of the same patch series or a separate
> one?

Up to you, as long as they come later in a series than everything more
urgent.

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