GNU bug report logs - #79266
Replacement (substitution) variable references not supported in TESTS

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

From: Richard Hansen <rhansen <at> rhansen.org>
To: bug-automake <at> gnu.org
Subject: Replacement (substitution) variable references not supported in TESTS
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2025 17:24:07 -0400

POSIX Issue 8 added support for pattern substitution variable references 
like the following:

    $(foo:%=pfx_%_sfx)

When such a variable reference is added to TESTS, directly or indirectly 
(with delayed expansion), the substitution part is discarded, becoming 
$(foo).  For example:

    TESTS = $(foo:%=pfx_%_sfx)

effectively becomes:

    TESTS = $(foo)

The same is true for non-pattern suffix replacement references, which 
have been in POSIX since at least Issue 5 (1997).  For example:

    TESTS = $(foo:.ext1=.ext2)

effectively becomes:

    TESTS = $(foo)

Tested with:
  * git master branch
  * 1.16.5 packaged in Ubuntu

Not tested:
  * whether other variables are also affected
  * whether this is a recent breakage or a longstanding bug

I did not see any mention of this issue in the manual or existing bug 
reports.  Please let me know if I overlooked something.

I will send a patch adding test cases as soon as I know what this bug's 
number will be.  I am willing to propose patches to fix this; a pointer 
to where in the code this bug lives would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Richard

Message #8 received at 79266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Richard Hansen <rhansen <at> rhansen.org>
To: 79266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: Replacement (substitution) variable references not supported in
 TESTS
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2025 17:32:55 -0400

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Attached are tests for this bug.

[0001-tests-add-XFAIL-tests-for-substitution-replacement-v.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #11 received at 79266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: rhansen <at> rhansen.org
Cc: 79266 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79266: Replacement (substitution) variable references not
 supported in TESTS
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2025 15:37:58 -0600

Hi Richard,

    I did not see any mention of this issue in the manual or existing bug 
    reports.  Please let me know if I overlooked something.

Pretty sure you haven't overlooked anything. Don't recall seeing
any mention of this before.

    I will send a patch adding test cases as soon as I know what this
    bug's number will be.  

79266, evidently.

    I am willing to propose patches to fix this; 

Thanks much! 

    a pointer to where in the code this bug lives would be appreciated.

I took a quick look at bin/automake.in for regexps using %,
searching for "s/.*%". The one that looks suspicious to me is around
line 6966, in the fn preprocess_file:
  # Substitute Automake template tokens.
  s/(?: % \?? [\w\-]+ %
      | \? !? [\w\-]+ \?
    )/transform($&, %transform)/gex;

which looks like it's replacing more or less any word chars between two
% (or ?) signs with the result of calling the (passed) transform fn. 

What exactly these "templates" and "transformations" are about, I'm
afraid I have no good idea. We'll have to dig in ... I hope you can, as
it will be a couple weeks (at best) before I can take any serious look
at the code.

Thanks again,
Karl

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