[9] RFC JDK-8068373: (prefs) FileSystemPreferences writes \0 to XML storage, causing loss of all preferences

[Brian Burkhalter]

On Feb 12, 2015, at 9:29 AM, Paul Sandoz <paul.sandoz at oracle.com> wrote:

>>> Yes, for an interoperable format potentially read by other tools having U+0000 is a really bad idea.
>> 
>> Yep.
>> 
> 
> And i think that applies to plist files too.

I cannot confirm but I heard otherwise. I’ll test it.

>>> My inclination is if properties are written out to a text file then it should fail if a key/value contains U+0000 (Binary data should be base64 encoded in such cases.) Replacing just subtlety hides or defers the issue.
>> 
>> That was my original idea  \in fact (webrev.00, unpublished). It would however require a spec update to
>> 
>> http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/prefs/Preferences.html#put-java.lang.String-java.lang.String-
>> 
>> to allow for an IAE in this case. This would also be a backward-incompatible change for platforms which do allow storing such values.
>> 
> 
>> Note that a similar situation applies to Properties.
> 
> My recommendation is serialization of properties to any textual format should barf if a U+0000 is encountered. Otherwise it's just hiding bugs. In such cases i think there is a strong justification to introduce such an incompatible change. I except it is rare to encounter in practice.

I cannot argue with that. I will revise and re-post the patch and see what the consensus says.

Thanks for the input.

Brian