Subject: Re: bug#12177: mdate-sh scriptversion=2009-04-28.21; # UTC

From: Stefano Lattarini <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:34:46 +0100

Reference:
<http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=12177>

On 08/12/2012 10:56 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> Hi Doug, thanks for the report.
> 
> On 08/11/2012 02:59 AM, doug wrote:
>> This file is found in make-3.82 and autotools packages.
>>
> Which Automake version?
> 
>> It runs forever some systems.
>>
> Not anymore, since Ralf Wildenhues fixed it two years ago (2010-08-21)
> with commit v1.11-188-gb268a1f "Improve robustness of mdate-sh script":
> 
>     Improve robustness of mdate-sh script.
> 
>     * lib/mdate-sh: Sanitize zsh behavior on startup, to ensure
>     $ls_command is word-split properly upon invocation.
>     (error): New function.
>     (main): Use it.  Improve error checking to avoid endless loop
>     in case $ls_command gave bogus output.  Fix eval quotation.
>     * tests/mdate6.test: New test, to expose eval quotation error.
>     * tests/Makefile.am: Update.
> 
> The script will still experience an error, though (which is better
> than an endless loop).
> 
>> Note below:
>>
>> # TIME_STYLE="posix-long-iso" echo x`/home/doug/gentoo/bin/ls -L -d -n /` 
>> xdrwxr-xr-x 22 0 0 512 July 24 01:43 /
>>                        ^^^^
>>
> What happens if TIME_STYLE is simply unset?
> 
>> Now look at line 114
>>
>>     Jul) month=July; nummonth=7;;
>>
>> July will never match Jul and so the loop is infinite.
>>
>> Regards
>> - Doug
> 
Any news on this bug?  To avoid keeping the Automake bug tracker overly
cluttered, I'm going to close the report in a few days if I don't hear
anything back.

Regards,
  Stefano