Subject: Re: bug#8321: 23.1; emerge error diff extra operand

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 21:48:27 +0200

> Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:31:43 -0400
> From: "Mark H. David" <[email-masked]>
> 
> Thanks for checking on this so fast!
> 
> Wow, actually having a full pathname with no spaces worked.

If so, I think this is already fixed in the development sources.  Can
you try the patch below?

--- lisp/emerge.el~0	2011-03-10 19:56:29.093750000 +0200
+++ lisp/emerge.el	2011-03-18 23:48:44.187500000 +0200
@@ -3187,21 +3187,26 @@
 
 ;; Metacharacters that have to be protected from the shell when executing
 ;; a diff/diff3 command.
-(defcustom emerge-metachars "[ \t\n!\"#$&'()*;<=>?[\\^`{|~]"
-  "Characters that must be quoted with \\ when used in a shell command line.
+(defcustom emerge-metachars
+  (if (memq system-type '(ms-dos windows-nt))
+      "[ \t\"<>|?*^&=]"
+    "[ \t\n!\"#$&'()*;<=>?[\\^`{|~]")
+  "Characters that must be quoted when used in a shell command line.
 More precisely, a [...] regexp to match any one such character."
   :type 'regexp
   :group 'emerge)
 
 ;; Quote metacharacters (using \) when executing a diff/diff3 command.
 (defun emerge-protect-metachars (s)
-  (let ((limit 0))
-    (while (string-match emerge-metachars s limit)
-      (setq s (concat (substring s 0 (match-beginning 0))
-		      "\\"
-		      (substring s (match-beginning 0))))
-      (setq limit (1+ (match-end 0)))))
-  s)
+  (if (memq system-type '(ms-dos windows-nt))
+      (shell-quote-argument s)
+    (let ((limit 0))
+      (while (string-match emerge-metachars s limit)
+	(setq s (concat (substring s 0 (match-beginning 0))
+			"\\"
+			(substring s (match-beginning 0))))
+	(setq limit (1+ (match-end 0)))))
+    s))
 
 (provide 'emerge)