$HOME in loadpath - Re: Getting ready to put out a 4.6 release candidate

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

I see the following problem which leads to failure of "make":

make[2]: Entering directory 
`/home/mikulik/work/Software/gnuplot/gnuplot/tutorial'
if test -x ../src/gnuplot ; then GNUPLOT_PS_DIR=../term/PostScript 
GNUPLOT_LIB=. GNUTERM=latex ../src/gnuplot eg1.plt ; else gnuplot eg1.plt ; 
fi
if test -x ../src/gnuplot ; then GNUPLOT_PS_DIR=../term/PostScript 
GNUPLOT_LIB=. GNUTERM=latex ../src/gnuplot eg2.plt ; else gnuplot eg2.plt ; 
fi
"/home/mikulik/.gnuplot", line 3: Pipes and shell commands not permitted 
during intialization

WARNING: Error during initialization

make[2]: *** [eg2.tex] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
"/home/mikulik/.gnuplot", line 3: Pipes and shell commands not permitted 
during intialization

WARNING: Error during initialization


Even worse, it fails even during gnuplot start-up:

$ ./gnuplot

        G N U P L O T
        Version 4.5 patchlevel 0    last modified 2012-01-05 
        Build System: Linux i686

        Copyright (C) 1986-1993, 1998, 2004, 2007-2011
        Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others

        gnuplot home:     http://www.gnuplot.info
        mailing list:     gnu...@li...
        faq, bugs, etc:   type "help FAQ"
        immediate help:   type "help"  (plot window: hit 'h')
"/home/mikulik/.gnuplot", line 3: Pipes and shell commands not permitted 
during intialization

WARNING: Error during initialization


I have the following line in my $HOME/.gnuplot:
set loadpath "`echo $HOME`/usr/lib/gnuplot"

I don't know any other way how to get the home dir there (except for 
GNUPLOT_LIB via shell's rc script); the "~" is not expanded.

This seems to be a consequence of
2011-12-28  Ethan A Merritt  
  Do not allow execution of system(), shell, or popen() commands in 
  the initialization files.

What's the reason for this change?

I think it would be better to avoid $HOME/.gnuplot completely during "make", 
but allow anything during ordinary gnuplot use.

---
Petr