GNU bug report logs - #13295
Possible bug - tr utility

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From: "Killen, Randy" <rkillen <at> frk.com>
To: Erik Auerswald <auerswal <at> unix-ag.uni-kl.de>, "13295 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <13295 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: bug#13295: Possible bug - tr utility
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:48:58 +0000

Thanks Erik. That does help.

Randy

-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Auerswald [mailto:auerswal <at> unix-ag.uni-kl.de] 
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 3:47 PM
To: Killen, Randy; 13295 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#13295: Possible bug - tr utility

Hi Randy,

On 12/28/2012 06:37 PM, Killen, Randy wrote:
> Hello -
>
> I encountered the situation shown below so thought that I would report it to see if it might be a bug or is expected behavior.  Please let me know if you need additional information.
>
> Randy
>
>
> $
> $ echo something | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] SOMETHING $ echo something | 
> tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'
> SOMETHING
> $
> $ touch l
> $ echo something | tr [:lower:] [:upper:]
> tr: misaligned [:upper:] and/or [:lower:] construct $ echo something | 
> tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'
> SOMETHING
> $ rm l
> $
> $ touch u
> $ echo something | tr [:lower:] [:upper:]
> tr: misaligned [:upper:] and/or [:lower:] construct $ echo something | 
> tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'
> SOMETHING
> $ rm u
> $
> $ touch l
> $ touch u
> $ echo something | tr [:lower:] [:upper:] something $ echo something | 
> tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'
> SOMETHING
> $ rm l
> $ rm u

This is expected behavior, caused by lack of quoting that results in the shell (Bash) interpreting [...] as a wildcard pattern for file name globbing (see glob(7)). If the 'nullglob' option of the shell is disabled (use 'shopt nullglob' to display the current setting), a wildcard that matches no files is kept as is. Thus the wildcards [:lower:] and [:upper:] are either replaced by l resp. u if one of those files exist or kept, if no matching file exists.

Quoting the special characters '[' and ']' by using '[:lower:]' resp. 
'[:upper:]' (including the quotes) inhibits the shell from interpreting them as file globbing wildcards. Therefore, you should always quote character classes that are meant as arguments to a program.

HTH
Erik
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