GNU bug report logs - #77707
[shepherd] chdir and invoke do not work as intended in services

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Message #10 received at 77707-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> chbouib.org>
To: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 77707-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#77707: [shepherd] chdir and invoke do not work as intended
 in services
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2025 21:52:29 +0200

Hi,

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com> skribis:

> +                             (start #~(lambda _
> +                                        (mkdir "/etc/testdir")
> +                                        (chdir "/etc/testdir")
> +                                        (invoke #$(file-append coreutils "/bin/touch")
> +                                                "new-file.txt")

[...]

> You should see upon inspection that:
>
> root <at> komputilo ~# ls /new-file.txt 
> /new-file.txt                        # wrong place
> root <at> komputilo ~# ls /etc/testdir/   # empty

That’s because ‘invoke’ uses ‘system*’, which is in fact within the
‘shepherd’ process an alias for ‘spawn-command’.

This is fixed in 8d88024e0898dd7d4581c4e977c9786af734a855, which will be
in 1.0.4.

However generally speaking it’s a good idea to leave the current
directory of the ‘shepherd’ process unchanged as bad things could happen
otherwise (though ‘with-directory-excursion’ from (shepherd support)
should be safe.)

Thanks,
Ludo’.

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