passing Configure -Dprefix a literal backslash, space sequence (\ ) confuses Configure

[p5pRT]

Migrated from rt.perl.org#124345 (status was 'open')

Searchable as RT124345$

[p5pRT]

From @kentfredric

The attached build script is expected to work, but does not. It instead gets hung up in Configure​:

---

System manual is in /usr/share/man/man1.

Perl5 has manual pages available in source form.
If you don't want the manual sources installed, answer 'none'.
sed​: -e expression #1, char 87​: unterminated `s' command

Where do the main Perl5 manual pages (source) go? (~name ok)

---

Configure script in question is that shipped with perl-5.21.10

[p5pRT]

From @kentfredric

bad.sh

[p5pRT]

From @Tux

On Sat, 18 Apr 2015 17​:37​:01 -0700, Kent Fredric (via RT)
<perlbug-followup@​perl.org> wrote​:

The attached build script is expected to work, but does not. It
instead gets hung up in Configure​:

Thanks for spotting.

The next change is waiting to be merged after the release of 5.22​:

commit a46a738
Author​: H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@​xs4all.nl>
Date​: Sun Apr 19 11​:20​:06 2015 +0200

  Forbid the use of a literal \ in Configure -D arguments

: The reasoning behind this change is that optdef.sh gets sourced and
: the arguments, like prefix, are passed around in different quotation
: styles and subshells all around, and the (unescaped) backslash will
: not be pertained in the final config.sh

This change has already been adopted by the upstream meta/dist package

--
H.Merijn Brand http​://tux.nl Perl Monger http​://amsterdam.pm.org/
using perl5.00307 .. 5.21 porting perl5 on HP-UX, AIX, and openSUSE
http​://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/ http​://www.test-smoke.org/
http​://qa.perl.org http​://www.goldmark.org/jeff/stupid-disclaimers/

[p5pRT]

The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

[jkeenan]

From @Tux

On Sat, 18 Apr 2015 17​:37​:01 -0700, Kent Fredric (via RT) <perlbug-followup@​perl.org> wrote​:

The attached build script is expected to work, but does not. It
instead gets hung up in Configure​:

Thanks for spotting.

The next change is waiting to be merged after the release of 5.22​:

commit a46a738 Author​: H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@​xs4all.nl> Date​: Sun Apr 19 11​:20​:06 2015 +0200

Forbid the use of a literal \ in Configure -D arguments

: The reasoning behind this change is that optdef.sh gets sourced and : the arguments, like prefix, are passed around in different quotation : styles and subshells all around, and the (unescaped) backslash will : not be pertained in the final config.sh

This change has already been adopted by the upstream meta/dist package

-- H.Merijn Brand http​://tux.nl Perl Monger http​://amsterdam.pm.org/ using perl5.00307 .. 5.21 porting perl5 on HP-UX, AIX, and openSUSE http​://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/ http​://www.test-smoke.org/ http​://qa.perl.org http​://www.goldmark.org/jeff/stupid-disclaimers/

@Tux, was the patch above ever brought into Perl 5 Configure? If not, do you wish to pursue it further?

[Tux]

This has been merged as

commit f41cd3a9d49c13be551a0daeb6aad1c3b9786d4b
Author: H.Merijn Brand - Tux <[email protected]>
Date:   Sun Apr 19 10:56:12 2015 +0200

    Inhibit the use of \ in -D arguments

And amended in

commit e9a6b2913204856e44ea6134cb2ea95566830a39
Author: H.Merijn Brand - Tux <[email protected]>
Date:   Thu Apr 21 15:17:23 2016 +0200

    Stuff missed in previous commits

It ended up in the core with these commits:

commit e244340e4067bb332773529bbff797bd14f103de
Author: Jarkko Hietaniemi <[email protected]>
Date:   Wed Dec 16 20:19:03 2015 -0500

    Configure: grep -q is not portable

    It does not work in SysV (solaris) or old BSD greps.

commit e6704a40e007cf599527cad0675d63c2ca3e423d
Author: H.Merijn Brand <[email protected]>
Date:   Mon Jul 6 16:02:15 2015 +0200

    Regenerate Configure after backports and small fixes