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#3134 TclpSetInitialEncodings works only once on Unix

obsolete: 8.4.9
closed-fixed
7
2005-11-03
2005-05-13
No

I think I found a bug in Tcl that prevents a tclkit to
find and use the proper system encoding in a
non-English locale.

Of course, it is not a bug for Tcl itself, because this
function
is really called just once on startup (and does its job).

But tclkit has to call it twice --- on startup and after
mounting VFS which contains encoding files.

A patch to unix/tclUnixInit.c:
-----------------PATCH---------------------
--- tclUnixInit.c Thu May 12 20:18:51 2005
+++ tclUnixInit.c.new Thu May 12 20:14:03 2005
@@ -485,7 +485,8 @@
void
TclpSetInitialEncodings()
{
- if (libraryPathEncodingFixed == 0) {
+
+/* if (libraryPathEncodingFixed == 0) { */
CONST char *encoding = NULL;
int i, setSysEncCode = TCL_ERROR;
Tcl_Obj *pathPtr;
@@ -647,6 +648,7 @@
* dependent behavior.
*/

+ if (libraryPathEncodingFixed == 0) {
setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C");

/*
-----------------PATCH---------------------

This problem really needs to be fixed --- it makes tclkit
practically unusable for non-English users. And I don't
see a way how Tcl will suffer from it.

Discussion

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  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-13

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    Just want to confirm that this
    report is against release 8.4.9
    of Tcl?

    And it does not pertain to
    the heavily modified intialization
    routines in Tcl 8.5a2 ?

    Is this report in any way a new bug?
    Why is it arising only now?

     
  • Yaroslav Schekin

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    Yes, it's really agains 8.4.9.
    This bug was mentioned before (look in tclkit developer's forum
    arhives), but solution was not found before.
    I didn't look in 8.5a2 sources yet.

     
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous - 2005-05-16

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    Don, unfortunately I'm not really the person to ask for comments on this.
    Perhaps Vince or Jeff can comment. I have never grasped the intricacies of
    Tcl's init sequence.

    With that out of the way... if avoiding double init is merely an optimization,
    then it seems to me that the above change would be ok. It essentially lets
    some of the code run on every call to TclpSetInitialEncodings. Might also be a
    hint about splitting this in two separate functions. This code only affects the
    Unix builds, I don't know how Windows differs.

    What Tclkit needs has always been the same: set up a Tcl interp without
    encodings at hand to let it run a bit of plain ASCII Tcl, then tell the system
    about encoding files which now are available.

    Sorry I can't be of much help.

    -jcw

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-17

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    Sorry, jcw, I didn't ask the Q clearly enough.

    I'm not looking for an approving opinion
    on the proposed patch; I'm looking for the
    bug report, and some background and
    history.

    Yarslov says the description of the problem
    is in the archives of a "tclkit developer's forum" (?)

    Can anyone give me a more direct pointer than that?

    Rather than just accept a contributed patch,
    I'd like to understand the problem being solved.
    Also with a clearer understanding of the
    problem faced, I'll have a better idea whether
    it's already fixed in Tcl 8.5 development.

     
  • Yaroslav Schekin

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    Sorry, I misled you (and forgot to describe a problem).

    This is a part from original letter (not in tclkit forum,
    sorry again):
    -------------------------
    Sergey Vlasov vsu at altlinux.ru
    Sat Apr 16 18:32:59 CEST 2005
    Does anyone know how to make tclkit find and use the proper
    system encoding in a non-English locale?

    I have tried tclkit-linux-x86-8.4.9 with LANG=ru_RU.KOI8-R,
    and also the 8.4.9 Win32 version under Windows 98, and
    both have the same problem: even if I rebuild tclkit with all
    encoding files (as described at
    http://www.equi4.com/tkunicode.html\), I still get:

    $ tclkit
    % encoding system
    iso8859-1

    (the Win32 version gives cp1252, which is also bad -
    the real system encoding in that case is cp1251).

    When a Tk application is launched in such environment (I tried
    Notebook - http://notebook.wjduquette.com/\), it has major
    problems:
    all keyboard input is assumed to be in the broken system
    encoding, therefore I get iso8859-1 accented letters instead
    of Cyrillic characters. Obviously, this makes starkits
    unusable.

    I tried the newer tclkit version (8.5.a2) on Linux
    (http://www.equi4.com/pub/tk/8.5a2/tclkit-linux-x86.gz), and
    with
    LANG-ru_RU.KOI8-R it does not start at all:

    $ tclkit-linux-x86-8.5a2
    system encoding "
    zsh: abort tclkit-linux-x86-8.5a2

    If I execute "encoding system koi8-r" (after either adding the
    appropriate encoding files to tclkit, or copying them as
    described in
    http://wiki.tcl.tk/10382\), then it seems to work (I tried to
    insert
    this statement into
    notebook2.1.1.vfs/lib/app-notebook/notebook.tcl
    after copying of the encoding files, and such hacked
    Notebook can
    handle Cyrillic characters properly). But obviously
    hardcoding the
    encoding name is not acceptable - the encoding should be
    determined automatically, like the "real" Tcl does it.

    Looking at tclUnixInit.c:TclpSetInitialEncodings(), I see
    that Tcl
    tries several methods to detect the system encoding and uses
    the
    first encoding for which Tcl_SetSystemEncoding() succeeds.
    However, at this point the encoding files stored inside
    tclkit are
    not yet available (because vfs is not initialized),
    therefore all
    calls to Tcl_SetSystemEncoding() fail, and system encoding is
    left set to "identity".
    -------------------------------------------------
    My additons to it:

    On windows, tclkit fails because of its problems in working
    with VFS. This is from my bug report to them:
    ----------------------------
    On windows (and at all), there is a bug it boot.tcl in tclkit:

    vfs::filesystem unmount $noe

    Example in russian locale on Win98 (cp1251):
    noe: D:/TCLKIT/русский/TCLKIT-WIN32-NEWEST.EXE
    ::vfs::filesystem info:
    d:/tclkit/русский/tclkit-win32-newest.exe

    Case differs, so it says: "no such mount" and crashes
    (on Win98 only).
    Replaced with:
    vfs::filesystem unmount [::vfs::filesystem info]
    tclkit-win32-newest.exe with added encodings by
    tkunicode.html on the site works ok.
    ----------------------------

    So, there is no bug in Tcl itself on Windows, but on Unix,
    when tclkit tries to set system encoding second time (with
    encodings loaded), this function just doesn't do it as I
    described
    before. So, system encoding just gets "fixed" by tclkit startup
    code from "identity" to iso8859-1, which is not correct.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-19

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    thanks for the details.

    part of that message reports
    that a Tclkit built on
    Tcl8.5a2 doesn't work at all.
    Can we construct a Tclkit
    from the current CVS sources
    of both Tcl and Tclkit, and try
    that again? An official Tcl 8.5a3
    release should be out in a few weeks,
    and it would be best to find out now
    if that combination will be broken.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-19

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    I don't follow this part of the report:

    "I tried the newer tclkit version (8.5.a2) on Linux
    ... it does not start at all ...
    If I execute "encoding system koi8-r" ...
    then it seems to work."

    If the program will not start, then what does
    it mean to "execute 'encoding system koi8-r'" ?

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-19

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    In Tcl 8.5a3, the TclpSetInitialEncodings
    routine no longer suffers from the limitation
    reported. If Tclkit sources get updated to
    use the new command
    [::tcl::unsupported::EncodingDirs]
    or the corresponding private C routine
    TclSetEncodingSearchPath
    before the second call to TclpSetInitialEncodings...

    ...AND if the encoding files are actually
    in the directory to be found...

    ...then this issue should be solved
    with 8.5a3 as a base. A successful
    test with the next Tcl release would be
    a very good thing, and would be good
    motivation to push these "unsupported"
    and "private" interfaces public.

    I still need to look into what can be
    done for Tcl 8.4.10, if anything.

     
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous - 2005-05-19

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    When I follow the tclkit build instructions at http://www.equi4.com/218
    (replacing genkit by genkit85 everywhere, and tars by tars85), I get the
    following error while in the first compile (tclsh genkit85 B tcl):

    gcc -pipe -c -O2 -Wall -Wno-implicit-int -fPIC -I. -I../../../src/tcl/unix -I../../../src/
    tcl/unix/../generic -DTCL_TOMMATH -I../../../src/tcl/unix/../libtommath -
    DPACKAGE_NAME=\"tcl\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"tcl\" -
    DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"8.5\" -DPACKAGE_STRING=\"tcl\ 8.5\" -
    DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -
    DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1
    -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -
    DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -
    DHAVE_LIMITS_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_PARAM_H=1 -
    DTCL_CFGVAL_ENCODING=\"iso8859-1\" -DSTATIC_BUILD=1 -
    DPEEK_XCLOSEIM=1 -DTCL_SHLIB_EXT=\".so\" -
    DTCL_CFG_OPTIMIZED=1 -DTCL_CFG_DEBUG=1 -
    D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE=1 -DTCL_WIDE_INT_TYPE=long\ long -
    DHAVE_STRUCT_STAT64=1 -DHAVE_OPEN64=1 -DHAVE_LSEEK64=1 -
    DHAVE_TYPE_OFF64_T=1 -DHAVE_GETCWD=1 -DHAVE_OPENDIR=1 -
    DHAVE_STRTOL=1 -DHAVE_STRTOLL=1 -DHAVE_STRTOULL=1 -
    DHAVE_TMPNAM=1 -DHAVE_WAITPID=1 -DUSE_TERMIOS=1 -
    DHAVE_SYS_TIME_H=1 -DTIME_WITH_SYS_TIME=1 -
    DHAVE_STRUCT_TM_TM_ZONE=1 -DHAVE_TM_ZONE=1 -
    DHAVE_GMTIME_R=1 -DHAVE_LOCALTIME_R=1 -DHAVE_MKTIME=1 -
    DHAVE_TM_GMTOFF=1 -DHAVE_TIMEZONE_VAR=1 -
    DHAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLKSIZE=1 -DHAVE_ST_BLKSIZE=1 -
    DHAVE_SIGNED_CHAR=1 -DHAVE_LANGINFO=1 -
    DHAVE_SYS_IOCTL_H=1 -DTCL_UNLOAD_DLLS=1 ../../../src/tcl/unix/../
    generic/tclObj.c
    In file included from ../../../src/tcl/generic/tclObj.c:19:
    ../../../src/tcl/generic/tommath.h:31:27: tommath_class.h: No such file or
    directory
    make: *** [tclObj.o] Error 1

    I did a "cvs update" in all src/* directories after the "tclsh genkit A" step, which
    fetched everything.

    Has something changed? Do I need to get something else? I can attach the
    build transcript if needed.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-19

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    Yes, the "tcl" cvs module has a
    new "libtommath" submodule and
    CVS limitations make the transition
    a bit non-trivial.

    Simplest thing to do is just get a
    completely fresh tcl checkout:

    cvs -d .... checkout tcl

    and notice the new subdirectory
    tcl/libtommath .

    If that's unattractive (maybe your
    existing checkout has mods you
    don't want to lose?), then we can
    doing something else a bit more
    involved.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-19

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    Here's a patch against
    the core-8-4-branch of
    development. Ought to apply
    to Tcl 8.4.9 as well.

    Please test to see whether
    it addresses the reported
    problem.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-19
     
  • Anonymous

    Anonymous - 2005-05-19

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    Ok, thx. A trial build for Linux is at http://www.equi4.com/tclkit85try.gz - it has
    the following dynlib dependencies:

    $ ldd tclkit-dellie
    linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000)
    libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0xb7fde000)
    libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.5/libstdc++.so.5
    (0xb7f24000) libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0xb7f02000) libgcc_s.so.1
    => /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.5/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xb7ef9000)
    libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb7de4000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.
    2 (0xb7fea000)
    $

    The CVS checkout was anonymous, not an SF dev checkout so it may lag a
    couple of hours. Oh, and the embedded Tcl runtime scripts are not updated
    from 8.5a2 (genkit just slaps a fixed starkit onto the end of the exe).

    I can't do any testing right now, but please let me know if I need to tweak
    things and rebuild.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-05-24

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    any luck testing this? 8.5a3 release
    is coming quickly.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-06-01

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    I received no reports about testing
    the patch, so it will not be part
    of Tcl 8.4.10 release.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-06-20

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    working on the 8.4.11 release now...

    Can't anyone comment on whether
    the attached patch does any good
    for solving the reported problem?

    I'm not willing to change the
    "stable" branch of Tcl on this point
    without a minimum endorsement
    of effectiveness.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-09-27

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    dgp patch is there; just needs testing.
    [21:31] dgp that's an 8.4 branch matter though.
    [21:31] stevel that would be a good one to assign to Andreas
    Kupries

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-09-27
    • assigned_to: dgp --> andreas_kupries
     
  • Jeffrey Hobbs

    Jeffrey Hobbs - 2005-10-05
    • priority: 5 --> 7
     
  • Yaroslav Schekin

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    This is my answer to the letter from Andreas
    Kupries (looks like he doesn't received it).

    > Attached to the bug is a patch claiming to fix the
    > problem. I have now created two sets of tclkits, one
    > with and one without this patch. The kits are built
    > for Linux/Intel.

    Hello, Andreas.

    I've tried your kits. They don't fix the problem.

    Transcript:
    % encoding system iso8859-1

    So, I want to repeat my patch (it is in original report) to
    unix/tclUnixInit.c:
    -----------------PATCH---------------------
    --- tclUnixInit.c Thu May 12 20:18:51 2005
    +++ tclUnixInit.c.new Thu May 12 20:14:03 2005
    @@ -485,7 +485,8 @@
    void
    TclpSetInitialEncodings()
    {
    - if (libraryPathEncodingFixed == 0) {
    +
    +/* if (libraryPathEncodingFixed == 0) { */
    CONST char *encoding = NULL;
    int i, setSysEncCode = TCL_ERROR;
    Tcl_Obj *pathPtr;
    @@ -647,6 +648,7 @@
    * dependent behavior.
    */

    + if (libraryPathEncodingFixed == 0) {
    setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C");

    /*
    -----------------PATCH---------------------

    Tclkit I've built with it really fixes the problem.

    Transcript:
    % encoding system
    koi8-r

    Why don't you accept it? If you look into Windows
    implementation of TclpSetInitialEncodings, you'll see
    almost the same code I'm offering. What's wrong with it?

     
  • Andreas Kupries

    Andreas Kupries - 2005-10-25

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    Oh, I have received it, it being the mail. However the
    accusatory undertone I found regarding my choice of patch
    has me thoroughly demotivated to continue work on this,
    derailing my initial plan of going through all the patches
    here, from last to first, to see which of them fix the
    problem and which don't. I also decided to not answer the
    mail until I have cooled down and able to be polite despite
    this. However now that this private communication is made
    public I feel compelled to answer, even if with anger in my
    heart.

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-11-01

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    Yaroslav, let's figure out a time
    we can work together on this.
    With testing feedback from you,
    I'm sure we can resolve this.

    What platform are you testing on?

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-11-01
    • assigned_to: andreas_kupries --> dgp
     
  • Yaroslav Schekin

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    I've tested on:
    $ uname -a
    Linux NOSOR 2.6.3-7mdk #1 Wed Mar 17 15:56:42 CET 2004 i686
    unknown unknown GNU/Linux

    And:
    $ uname -a
    Linux debian 2.4.27-2-686 #1 Mon May 16 17:03:22 JST 2005
    i686 GNU/Linux

     
  • Don Porter

    Don Porter - 2005-11-02

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    ok, I went through the exercise of
    building a Tclkit and it seems
    the root of the problem is that the
    koi8-r.enc file is not included
    in a standard Tclkit. How are you
    dealing with that?

     
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