GNU bug report logs - #14196
Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "(" in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68)

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jeff Johnston <jjohnstn <at> redhat.com>
To: bug-automake <at> gnu.org
Subject: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "(" in name
	(Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68)
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:52:03 -0400

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

I am using automake 1.11.6 and autoconf 2.68  on Fedora 17 and cannot 
configure a simple hello world program if it is placed into a directory 
with "(" and ")".

To reproduce:

1. Create a directory: mkdir test\(1\)

2. Take the attached tar file and untar it:
   cd test\(1\)
   tar -xzvf helloworld.tar.gz

3. autoreconf -i

4. now try and configure the project using ./configure or absolutely
   using sh -c '~/test\(1\)/configure'

In either case, you will get a failure trying to invoke "missing" due to 
the unexpected '(' token in the directory name.

bash $ ./configure
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
./configure: eval: line 2084: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./configure: eval: line 2084: `${SHELL} 
/home/cygnus/jjohnstn/test(1)/missing --run true'


-- Jeff J.

[helloworld.tar.gz (application/x-tar, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: jjohnstn <at> redhat.com
Cc: 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "("
 in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68)
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2020 19:07:08 -0600

Hi - thanks for this bug report (from seven years ago, sorry).

    4. now try and configure the project using ./configure or absolutely
        using sh -c '~/test\(1\)/configure'
    ...
    ./configure: eval: line 2084: syntax error near unexpected token `('
    ./configure: eval: line 2084: `${SHELL} 

It still happens with your supplied tarball (thanks much for that). As
far as I know this is a bug in autoconf, not automake. I have attempted
to reassign the bug. Zack, can you check please?

In the meantime, the failing line number has changed to 2126.
The relevant bit in the generated configure script is
	
  2117	if test x"${MISSING+set}" != xset; then
  2118	  case $am_aux_dir in
  2119    *\ * | *\	*)
  2120	    MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
  2121	  *)
  2122	    MISSING="\${SHELL} $am_aux_dir/missing" ;;
  2123	  esac
  2124	fi
  2125	# Use eval to expand $SHELL
  2126	if eval "$MISSING --is-lightweight"; then
  2127	  am_missing_run="$MISSING "
  2128	else

I tried manually changing the condition on line 2119 to check for lparen:
  2119	  *\ * | *\	* | *\(* )

and it went through ok. I suppose all shell metacharacters should be
checked for. Maybe always use the quoted version?

Thanks again for the report. --karl

Message #13 received at 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Zack Weinberg <zackw <at> panix.com>
To: 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, control <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "("
 in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2020 09:44:33 -0400

reassign -1 automake
tags -1 + patch
quit

OK, after a quick investigation, the failure happens at configure time
but the problem code belongs to automake.  Specifically,
AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN. I think the tidiest fix is to quote the value of
$am_aux_dir/missing unconditionally:

diff --git a/m4/missing.m4 b/m4/missing.m4
index 6f742fb20..56c84fbf5 100644
--- a/m4/missing.m4
+++ b/m4/missing.m4
@@ -21,12 +21,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN],
 [AC_REQUIRE([AM_AUX_DIR_EXPAND])dnl
 AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE([missing])dnl
 if test x"${MISSING+set}" != xset; then
-  case $am_aux_dir in
-  *\ * | *\    *)
-    MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
-  *)
-    MISSING="\${SHELL} $am_aux_dir/missing" ;;
-  esac
+  MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
 fi
 # Use eval to expand $SHELL
 if eval "$MISSING --is-lightweight"; then

This doesn't handle the possibility of $am_aux_dir containing
backslash or double quote characters, but that's ok because
AM_SANITY_CHECK will already have refused to run configure with either
the current working directory or the source directory named like that.
(An alternative patch would be to add ( ) to the set of characters
rejected by AM_SANITY_CHECK.)

If m4sugar included a version of AS_ESCAPE that worked at configure
time, instead of m4 expansion time, I'd suggest using that, but it
doesn't.

zw

Message #20 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Zack Weinberg <zackw <at> panix.com>
To: bug-automake <at> gnu.org, Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
Subject: Fwd: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "("
 in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2020 10:06:53 -0400

It looks like this didn't go through to bug-automake because the bug
was still considered to be assigned to autoconf at the time.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Zack Weinberg <zackw <at> panix.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 9:44 AM
Subject: Re: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory
with "(" in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68
To: <14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>, <control <at> debbugs.gnu.org>


reassign -1 automake
tags -1 + patch
quit

OK, after a quick investigation, the failure happens at configure time
but the problem code belongs to automake.  Specifically,
AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN. I think the tidiest fix is to quote the value of
$am_aux_dir/missing unconditionally:

diff --git a/m4/missing.m4 b/m4/missing.m4
index 6f742fb20..56c84fbf5 100644
--- a/m4/missing.m4
+++ b/m4/missing.m4
@@ -21,12 +21,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN],
 [AC_REQUIRE([AM_AUX_DIR_EXPAND])dnl
 AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE([missing])dnl
 if test x"${MISSING+set}" != xset; then
-  case $am_aux_dir in
-  *\ * | *\    *)
-    MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
-  *)
-    MISSING="\${SHELL} $am_aux_dir/missing" ;;
-  esac
+  MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
 fi
 # Use eval to expand $SHELL
 if eval "$MISSING --is-lightweight"; then

This doesn't handle the possibility of $am_aux_dir containing
backslash or double quote characters, but that's ok because
AM_SANITY_CHECK will already have refused to run configure with either
the current working directory or the source directory named like that.
(An alternative patch would be to add ( ) to the set of characters
rejected by AM_SANITY_CHECK.)

If m4sugar included a version of AS_ESCAPE that worked at configure
time, instead of m4 expansion time, I'd suggest using that, but it
doesn't.

zw

Message #23 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: zackw <at> panix.com
Cc: bug-automake <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: Fwd: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with
 "(" in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2020 16:14:57 -0600

    AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN

Whoops, sorry for not realizing that. Thanks for fixing my/our bug :).

    -  case $am_aux_dir in
    -  *\ * | *\    *)
    -    MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
    -  *)
    -    MISSING="\${SHELL} $am_aux_dir/missing" ;;
    -  esac
    +  MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;

I wondered about that too. But then why did the nonquoted case ever exist?
Just oversight when originally written and then patched to support
spaces? Seems weird. Can't find anything in ChangeLog about it.

Jim/Paul/anyone? Else I'll go ahead and apply. --thanks, karl.

Message #26 received at 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Zack Weinberg <zackw <at> panix.com>
Cc: GNU bug tracker automated control server <control <at> debbugs.gnu.org>,
 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "("
 in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2020 12:11:20 +0200

On Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 4:38 PM Zack Weinberg <zackw <at> panix.com> wrote:
> OK, after a quick investigation, the failure happens at configure time
> but the problem code belongs to automake.  Specifically,
> AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN. I think the tidiest fix is to quote the value of
> $am_aux_dir/missing unconditionally:
>
> diff --git a/m4/missing.m4 b/m4/missing.m4
> index 6f742fb20..56c84fbf5 100644
> --- a/m4/missing.m4
> +++ b/m4/missing.m4
> @@ -21,12 +21,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([AM_MISSING_HAS_RUN],
>  [AC_REQUIRE([AM_AUX_DIR_EXPAND])dnl
>  AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE([missing])dnl
>  if test x"${MISSING+set}" != xset; then
> -  case $am_aux_dir in
> -  *\ * | *\    *)
> -    MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
> -  *)
> -    MISSING="\${SHELL} $am_aux_dir/missing" ;;
> -  esac
> +  MISSING="\${SHELL} \"$am_aux_dir/missing\"" ;;
>  fi
>  # Use eval to expand $SHELL
>  if eval "$MISSING --is-lightweight"; then
>
> This doesn't handle the possibility of $am_aux_dir containing
> backslash or double quote characters, but that's ok because
> AM_SANITY_CHECK will already have refused to run configure with either
> the current working directory or the source directory named like that.
> (An alternative patch would be to add ( ) to the set of characters
> rejected by AM_SANITY_CHECK.)

Thanks for investigating and patching.
I think this patch is the right way to go.
Otherwise, I suspect we'd have to make AM_SANITY_CHECK disallow not
only parentheses, but also at least these !?*[]

While looking at this, I wondered... why are the inner quotes double quotes?
I.e., we might as well use single quotes. Slightly cleaner, too, since
no backslash is required for them:
+ MISSING="\${SHELL} '$am_aux_dir/missing'" ;;

Message #29 received at 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: 14196 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#14196: Problem with invoking "missing" in directory with "("
 in name (Automake 1.11.6, Autoconf 2.68
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2020 19:14:25 -0600

    + MISSING="\${SHELL} '$am_aux_dir/missing'" ;;

I made this change. Two tests (man6 and am-missing-prog) that were
grepping for the path to missing needed adjusting for the quotes being
present now.

Closing this one. Thanks all. -k

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