Subject: bug#6561: closed (Re: bug#6561: dired-do-shell-command " *" vs. "*", too close for comfort)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:28:02 +0000

Your bug report

#6561: dired-do-shell-command " *" vs. "*", too close for comfort

which was filed against the emacs package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
6561: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=6561
GNU Bug Tracking System
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Subject: Re: bug#6561: dired-do-shell-command " *" vs. "*", too close for comfort
From: Glenn Morris <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:27:05 -0500
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Version: 24.0.93

dired-do-shell-command claims to have a safety feature for this:

  `*' and `?' when not surrounded by whitespace have no special
  significance for `dired-do-shell-command', and are passed through
  normally to the shell, but you must confirm first.

AFAICS, due to a logic bug this feature has never worked.
Hopefully now it does.

I still have no idea what:

   To pass `*' by itself to the shell as a wildcard, type `*\"\"'.

is supposed to mean though.

Subject: dired-do-shell-command " *" vs. "*", too close for comfort
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2010 10:11:04 +0800
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Gee, a little slip of the wrist,
(dired-do-shell-command "head -c 999 * |sum" nil (quote ("FlashXXV9Z9sz")))
(dired-do-shell-command "head -c 999 *|sum" nil (quote ("FlashXXV9Z9sz")))
and it goes and gets every file in the directory.

Yes I know it is all well documented, but I can't think of any computer
language where such a tiny difference can make such a big difference.

I don't have an exact solution. All I know is it will bite the reader
sooner or later.