GNU bug report logs - #2407
23.0.90; Emacs chokes on empty command line argument

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Geralt <usr.gentoo <at> googlemail.com>
To: emacs-pretest-bug <at> gnu.org
Subject: 23.0.90; Emacs chokes on empty command line argument
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:50:34 +0100

Please write in English if possible, because the Emacs maintainers
usually do not have translators to read other languages for them.

Your bug report will be posted to the emacs-pretest-bug <at> gnu.org mailing list.

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

When running emacs with an empty command line argument like this:

emacs ''

it won't start and display the following message:

Option `' is ambiguous

This makes it impossible to just call emacs "$*" inside a shell script
(without checking if "$*" is an empty string).

If Emacs crashed, and you have the Emacs process in the gdb debugger,
please include the output from the following gdb commands:
    `bt full' and `xbacktrace'.
If you would like to further debug the crash, please read the file
/usr/share/emacs/23.0.90/etc/DEBUG for instructions.


In GNU Emacs 23.0.90.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.14.7)
 of 2009-02-17 on sascha-xps
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10502000
configured using `configure  '--prefix=/usr'
'--host=i686-pc-linux-gnu' '--mandir=/usr/share/man'
'--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--datadir=/usr/share' '--sysconfdir=/etc'
'--localstatedir=/var/lib' '--program-suffix=-emacs-23'
'--infodir=/usr/share/info/emacs-23' '--with-sound' '--with-x'
'--with-toolkit-scroll-bars' '--with-gif' '--with-jpeg' '--with-png'
'--with-rsvg' '--with-tiff' '--with-xpm' '--with-freetype'
'--with-xft' '--without-libotf' '--without-m17n-flt'
'--with-x-toolkit=gtk' '--without-hesiod' '--without-kerberos'
'--without-kerberos5' '--with-gpm' '--with-dbus'
'--build=i686-pc-linux-gnu' 'build_alias=i686-pc-linux-gnu'
'host_alias=i686-pc-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-O2 -march=prescott -pipe'
'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-O1''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: de_DE.utf8
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US.utf8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  eldoc-mode: t
  auto-complete-mode: t
  iswitchb-mode: t
  which-function-mode: t
  minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode: t
  recentf-mode: t
  icicle-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  auto-dictionary-mode: t
  flyspell-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: -1
  global-auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<f1> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <help-menu> <se
nd-emacs-bug-report>

Recent messages:
Loading /home/sascha/.emacs.d/site-lisp/auto-complete/auto-complete.el
(source)...done
Loading /home/sascha/.emacs.d/site-lisp/auto-complete/ac-dabbrev.el
(source)...done
Loading /home/sascha/.emacs.d/site-lisp/my-stuff/init.el (source)...done
Starting new Ispell process [default] ...
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Menu-Bar mode enabled
Buffer dictionary was nil
Ispell process killed
Local Ispell dictionary set to en
Buffer dictionary is now en

Message #10 received at 2407 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Andreas Schwab <schwab <at> suse.de>
To: Geralt <usr.gentoo <at> googlemail.com>
Cc: 2407 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#2407: 23.0.90; Emacs chokes on empty command line argument
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:17:38 +0100

Geralt <usr.gentoo <at> googlemail.com> writes:

> This makes it impossible to just call emacs "$*" inside a shell script
> (without checking if "$*" is an empty string).

You should use "$@" anyway.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, SuSE Labs, schwab <at> suse.de
SuSE Linux Products GmbH, Maxfeldstraße 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
PGP key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

Message #15 received at 2407-done <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
To: Andreas Schwab <schwab <at> suse.de>
Cc: 2407-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#2407: 23.0.90; Emacs chokes on empty command line argument
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:28:14 -0500

>> This makes it impossible to just call emacs "$*" inside a shell script
>> (without checking if "$*" is an empty string).
> You should use "$@" anyway.

Exactly.


        Stefan

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