#3337 configure crashes with bash 3.1 in two macros

[Anonymous]

I attempted to build tcl 8.4.12 on my Linux system with
a bash 3.1 shell. The configure script failed as follows:

checking system version (for dynamic loading)...
../configure: line 7653: syntax error near unexpected
token `)'
../configure: line 7653: ` OSF*)'

I tracked the problem down to the following line (2484
in the shipped configure script):

system=MP-RAS-`awk '{print }' /etc/.relid'`

Note the extra ' just before the final back-quote. This
is the cause of the problem. Later on, the same issue
appears again at line 7640.

The two occurrences of the offending line appear to
come from the macros SC_CONFIG_CFLAGS and
SC_BLOCKING_STYLE, defined in the Tcl-specific autoconf
macros in unix/tcl.m4. It looks like a typo to me.
Removing the extra quote lets the script run correctly.

Since 8.4.12 presumably would not have shipped with a
bad configure script, I'm assuming that older versions
of bash were less picky about quote parsing.

For additional info, please contact me at
jbuhler@cse.wustl.edu .

[Tim Mooney]

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Patch 001 for bash 3.1 was posted just recently, and it
includes fixes for some parsing problems introduced in 3.1.
Have you tried that patch to see if it fixes the issue
you're running into?

[Franck Bourdonnec]

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Hello,
I confirm this problem (under debian)

v 8.4.11

Line 2133 & 7611, configure have extra quote '
after "relid" word.

bash with or without bug, it is ALSO a syntax error
in tcl configure script

system=MP-RAS -`awk '{print }' /etc/relid' `
is false
system=MP-RAS -`awk '{print }' /etc/relid `
is correct

Error appears twice.

Thank you for correcting this because many 'builds' are
broken because of this typo!

Bye
Franck

[Jeffrey Hobbs]

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This is already fixed in CVS, but was an error that has been
in the sh script for a while. bash's 3.1 parsing changes
just uncovered it.

[Reinhard Max]

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I just checked an unpatched Tcl 8.4.12 with a bash that has
the patch mentioned by enchanter applied, and the error
still happens.

[Dennis]

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I'm having the same problem with bash-3.1 but cannot find Patch
001.

Do you have a link?

[Reinhard Max]

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That bash patch fixes some other parsing problems, but as
said in my last comment, it doesn't help with the typo in
Tcl's configure script. So even with that patch applied to
bash, you still need to fix tcl.m4 and re-generate the
configure script, or fix the configure script directly, if
you don't have autoconf at hand to re-generate it.

So, just for completness. The bash-patch that is useless in
regard to this bug in tcl.m4 can be found here:
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bash/bash-3.1-patches/bash31-001