GNU bug report logs - #12083
bug in groups command -- doesn't quote usage of group-separator in groupnames

Previous Next

To add a comment to this bug, you must first unarchive it, by sending
a message to control AT debbugs.gnu.org, with unarchive 12083 in the body.
You can then email your comments to 12083 AT debbugs.gnu.org in the normal way.

Toggle the display of automated, internal messages from the tracker.

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

From: Linda Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: bug in groups command -- doesn't quote usage of group-separator in
	groupnames
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 13:24:28 -0700

the 'groups' only prints out a bunch of words, but it doesn't tell me which
of those are groups and which of those are not groups.

It uses unquoted , space separated group name -- which has been known to be
problematic for years (cf. find's -print0, or xargs -0, et al.).

If this was only a default, and it could optionally print them 1/line or
a backslash before non-separator spaces in groupnames, or even with a
null like find, it might be workable, but the default, as it is 100% likely
to not print out Windows groupnames that it might be serving.

Even if it could use a TAB separator, that would still count as white space,
but be 99% less likely (maybe 100%) to conflict with existing group names.

Fixable?  As it doesn't follow standards now, if one uses a space as a
group separator, as what is listed, is incorrect (i.e. interpreting the list
as a space separated group list will result in faulty results).

Thanks,
:-)

Message #8 received at 12083 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Linda Walsh <coreutils <at> tlinx.org>
Cc: 12083 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#12083: bug in groups command -- doesn't quote usage of
	group-separator in groupnames
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:39:02 +0100

forcemerge 12083 9987
stop

On 07/29/2012 09:24 PM, Linda Walsh wrote:
> the 'groups' only prints out a bunch of words, but it doesn't tell me which
> of those are groups and which of those are not groups.
> 
> It uses unquoted , space separated group name -- which has been known to be
> problematic for years (cf. find's -print0, or xargs -0, et al.).
> 
> If this was only a default, and it could optionally print them 1/line or
> a backslash before non-separator spaces in groupnames, or even with a
> null like find, it might be workable, but the default, as it is 100% likely
> to not print out Windows groupnames that it might be serving.
> 
> Even if it could use a TAB separator, that would still count as white space,
> but be 99% less likely (maybe 100%) to conflict with existing group names.
> 
> Fixable?  As it doesn't follow standards now, if one uses a space as a
> group separator, as what is listed, is incorrect (i.e. interpreting the list
> as a space separated group list will result in faulty results).

It's already on the TODO list.

cheers,
Pádraig.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.