[vim/vim] Fixing systemlist() on Windows (PR #18598)

MiguelBarro

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Oct 18, 2025, 8:56:13 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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https://github.com/vim/vim/pull/18598

Commit Summary

7e6e104 systemlist() regression testing
07e39fd make systemlist() aware of Windows endlines

File Changes

(2 files)

M src/misc1.c (7)
M src/testdir/test_system.vim (59)

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MiguelBarro

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Oct 18, 2025, 9:14:55 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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@MiguelBarro pushed 2 commits.

cd609c9 systemlist() regression testing
7ae1c23 make systemlist() aware of Windows endlines

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zeertzjq

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Oct 18, 2025, 9:40:44 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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zeertzjq left a comment (vim/vim#18598)

I don't think this makes sense. The documentation clearly says that systemlist() output lines are separately by NL. They aren't separated by CRNL.

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MiguelBarro

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Oct 18, 2025, 10:39:15 AM (3 days ago) Oct 18

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MiguelBarro left a comment (vim/vim#18598)

I don't think this makes sense. The documentation clearly says that systemlist() output lines are separately by NL. They aren't separated by CRNL.

You are right. This is tricky. The docs on systemlist says:

	Same as |system()|, but returns a |List| with lines (parts of
	output separated by NL) with NULs transformed into NLs.

And this is meant to be crossplatform because the system docs says:

	To make the result more system-independent, the shell output
	is filtered to replace <CR> with <NL> for Macintosh, and
	<CR><NL> with <NL> for DOS-like systems.

and because systemlist works on system output, it should split the command output in lines properly in any platform.
The issue is that system does not follow the claimed behaviour (returns the OS line endings).
This is understandable because:

the current system implementation relies on output redirection. Parsing the output to remove <CR><NL> would be an overhead.
by keeping the ouput OS friendly we can properly echo the system result.
Thus, difficult choice. Either:
fix system and break backward compatibility (is the ony actually working on Windows).
fix systemlist to workaround the system error.