GNU bug report logs - #22203
25.0.50; # is treated as a comment character in shell-command arg

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

From: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
To: "bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org" <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
Subject: 25.0.50; # is treated as a comment character in shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 11:25:07 -0500

Hi,

I need to run shell-command that has a hash character (#) in it.

Here's is a trivialized example of what I need to do

(shell-command "echo abc#def" "*abc*")

The above works in a terminal and also in the below build from master branch:

Build date        : 2015/11/12 12:45 Thu
Savannah Git link :
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=9dd7da9945c16aa343080a535ed74eeecf769fd1

commit 9dd7da9945c16aa343080a535ed74eeecf769fd1
Author: Juanma Barranquero <lekktu <at> gmail.com>
Commit: Juanma Barranquero <lekktu <at> gmail.com>

    * test/automated/keymap-tests.el: New test file

I get the output "abc#def" in both the cases.

But when I do the same in an emacs -Q session on the latest emacs
build on emacs-25 branch, the # is treated as a "comment char" and
everything after the # is not passed to the shell.

So

(shell-command "echo abc#def" "*abc*")

is treated as

(shell-command "echo abc" "*abc*")

I searched the log messages for "shell-command" here:
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/log/?h=emacs-25 but I did
not find a commit that could have caused this change.

Is this change intentional? If so, how do I pass "#" to the shell
using shell-command?

Thanks!


In GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.23)
 of 2015-12-17
Repository revision: ecce24b34ba51f10d2a729bf5496a1cbec0bf329
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.60900000
System Description: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation release 6.6 (Santiago)

Configured using:
 'configure --prefix=/home/kmodi/usr_local/apps/6/emacs/emacs-25
 'CPPFLAGS=-fgnu89-inline -I/home/kmodi/usr_local/6/include
 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include' 'CFLAGS=-ggdb3 -O0'
 'CXXFLAGS=-ggdb3 -O0' 'LDFLAGS=-L/home/kmodi/usr_local/6/lib
 -L/home/kmodi/usr_local/6/lib64 -ggdb3''

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG IMAGEMAGICK SOUND GPM DBUS GCONF GSETTINGS
NOTIFY ACL LIBSELINUX GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE LIBOTF XFT ZLIB
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK2 X11

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=none
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
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  global-font-lock-mode: t
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  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
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Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

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Memory information:
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--
Kaushal Modi

Message #10 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50;
 # is treated as a comment character in shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 12:39:34 -0500

Kaushal Modi wrote:

> But when I do the same in an emacs -Q session on the latest emacs
> build on emacs-25 branch, the # is treated as a "comment char" and
> everything after the # is not passed to the shell.

I can't reproduce this.
On the face of it, it seems unlikely to me that master and emacs-25
would have diverged in this area.

Message #13 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50; # is treated as a comment character in
 shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 13:34:56 -0500

> I can't reproduce this.

That's odd. But in any case here is a gif of that in action.
This is on the following build of emacs-25 branch in an emacs -Q session,

Build date        : 2015/12/17 18:57 Thu
Savannah Git link :
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=ecce24b34ba51f10d2a729bf5496a1cbec0bf329

commit ecce24b34ba51f10d2a729bf5496a1cbec0bf329
Author: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Commit: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>

    Fix a typo in the Emacs manual

    * doc/emacs/trouble.texi (Sending Patches): Fix a typo.  Reported
    by Lele Gaifax <lele <at> metapensiero.it>.  (Bug#22193)

GIF: http://i.imgur.com/Jyskbmv.gifv

Message #16 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner <at> inode.at>
To: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50;
 # is treated as a comment character in shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 20:11:52 +0100

On Fri, Dec 18 2015, Kaushal Modi wrote:

> (shell-command "echo abc#def" "*abc*")
>
> is treated as
>
> (shell-command "echo abc" "*abc*")

The last stop in the call chain before entering C-land is
`call-process-region'.  It might be interesting to see what arguments
that function is passed (M-x trace-function).

Wolfgang

Message #19 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
To: Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner <at> inode.at>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50; # is treated as a comment character in
 shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 14:30:14 -0500

Hi Wolfgang,

> The last stop in the call chain before entering C-land is
> `call-process-region'.  It might be interesting to see what arguments
> that function is passed (M-x trace-function).

I get this by doing trace-function on call-process-region.

It looks like the arguments are passed alright .. but the result
buffer *test* shows just "abc" (without quotes) as in the GIF I posted
in my previous email.

======================================================================
1 -> (call-process-region 18234 18234 "/bin/tcsh" nil #<buffer *test*>
nil "-c" "echo abc#def")
1 <- call-process-region: 0

Message #24 received at 22203-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
To: 22203-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner <at> inode.at>
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50; # is treated as a comment character in
 shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 14:49:26 -0500

I am closing this issue.

After further testing.. it turns out that this issue doesn't have to
do anything with emacs.

Here's what happened:

I was running the separate instances of emacs (master branch version
and emacs-25 branch version) from different terminals.
In the terminal where I was running the master branch version (working
case) I was on HOST (env var) X.
In the terminal where I was running the emacs-25 branch version
(non-working case) I was on the same HOST but had to ssh into the same
host X as a hack to fix some group permission issues (at work). That
seemed to mess up the shell-command execution. After I exit from that
ssh session and restarted emacs, this issue was gone, even on
emacs-25.

Message #27 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner <at> inode.at>
To: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50;
 # is treated as a comment character in shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 20:53:37 +0100

On Fri, Dec 18 2015, Kaushal Modi wrote:

> It looks like the arguments are passed alright .. but the result
> buffer *test* shows just "abc" (without quotes) as in the GIF I posted
> in my previous email.
>
> ======================================================================
> 1 -> (call-process-region 18234 18234 "/bin/tcsh" nil #<buffer *test*>
> nil "-c" "echo abc#def")
> 1 <- call-process-region: 0

Yes, I can reproduce this with

(call-process-region (point-min) (point-min) "/bin/tcsh" nil "*test*" nil "-c" "echo abc#def")

However, using sh or bash instead of tcsh works (tcsh -c 'echo abc#def'
works on the command line, though).

So, perhaps, for some reason, emacs 25 and trunk use different shells on
your system?

Message #30 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
To: Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner <at> inode.at>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50; # is treated as a comment character in
 shell-command arg
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2015 14:59:39 -0500

> So, perhaps, for some reason, emacs 25 and trunk use different shells on
> your system?

That was almost the case.. the shells weren't different though. The
shell was the same: tcsh.

(shell-command "echo abc#def" "*test*")

If I run the above shell-command in an emacs started as below,
everything is good; I see "abc#def" printed in the *test* buffer.

HOST> emacs -Q&

But if I run the SAME shell-command in an emacs started as below, I
see only "abc" printed in the *test* buffer.

HOST> ssh HOST
HOST> emacs -Q&

This is the regardless of the emacs version. I incorrectly thought
earlier that it had to do with emacs-25 branch version vs the master
branch version.

Message #33 received at 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Wolfgang Jenkner <wjenkner <at> inode.at>
To: Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 22203 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#22203: 25.0.50;
 # is treated as a comment character in shell-command arg
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 15:09:18 +0100

On Fri, Dec 18 2015, Kaushal Modi wrote:

> HOST> emacs -Q&
>
> But if I run the SAME shell-command in an emacs started as below, I
> see only "abc" printed in the *test* buffer.
>
> HOST> ssh HOST
> HOST> emacs -Q&

What happens if you repeat this, but, instead of `emacs -Q&', run

echo $SHELL; ps -fp $$

before and after logging in via ssh?

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