bug#44600: Automake does not make site.exp correctly when spaces in current path name.

[Robert Menteer]

If your current directory path contains a space then Automake creates an invalid site.exp file. The problem is in the following code placed into Makefile.in:

        @echo 'set srcdir "$(srcdir)"' >>site.tmp

        @echo "set objdir `pwd`" >>site.tmp

Note you do quote the source directory. If you were to quote the result of the pwd it would create a valid site.exp file:

        @echo "set objdir \"`pwd`\"" >>site.tmp

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jacob Bachmeyer <jcb62281@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: bug#44580: DejaGnu runtest not found of site.exp exists

Date: November 11, 2020 at 9:56:09 PM EST

To: Robert Menteer <reetnem@mac.com>, Robert Menteer via Bug-dejagnu <bug-dejagnu@gnu.org>

Cc: 44580-done@debbugs.gnu.org

Reply-To: jcb62281@gmail.com

Robert Menteer via Bug-dejagnu via wrote:

What I found by running runtest by hand is it fails if the file site.ext exists.

Your site.exp file is invalid; this is a bug in Automake rather than a bug in DejaGnu.  The version of Automake that produced the Makefile.in that you are using mishandles filenames containing spaces.  Tcl requires a value containing spaces to be properly quoted in a "set" command, and Automake is producing a site.exp that does not contain those quotes for the objdir variable.

An immediate workaround is to run `sed -e '/^set [^ ]*dir [^"]/{s/dir /&"/;s/$/"/}' -i site.exp` (tested with GNU sed) to fix your site.exp file, or to avoid building in a directory where the absolute filename contains spaces.

Additionally, as of commit b53b22c29880f785ae5e9e1c72925d2583a4c76d (after 1.6.2 was released) DejaGnu no longer loads site.exp when invoked with the --version option.

Please try regenerating your Makefile.in with a newer Automake or report this as a bug in Automake if you are already using the latest version.

I am closing this report as NOTOURBUG.


-- Jacob

Original bug report to DejaGnu follows:

I have a Makefile created using the auto tools and it has a problem when making the ‘check’ target. The problem is the make file fails to verify the existence of runtest. The command used to test for the existence of runtest is:

if /bin/bash -c "runtest --version" > /dev/null 2>&1; then

What I found by running runtest by hand is it fails if the file site.ext exists. 

parallels@parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform:~/Desktop/Parallels Shared Folders/FlDist/trunk/testsuite$ runtest --version

ERROR: tcl error sourcing /media/psf/FlDist/trunk/testsuite/site.exp.

wrong # args: should be "set varName ?newValue?"

    while executing

"set objdir /home/parallels/Desktop/Parallels Shared Folders/FlDist/trunk/testsuite"

    (file "/media/psf/FlDist/trunk/testsuite/site.exp" line 5)

    invoked from within

"source /media/psf/FlDist/trunk/testsuite/site.exp"

    ("uplevel" body line 1)

    invoked from within

"uplevel #0 source /media/psf/FlDist/trunk/testsuite/site.exp"

    invoked from within

"catch "uplevel #0 source $file""

parallels@parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform:~/Desktop/Parallels Shared Folders/FlDist/trunk/testsuite$ rm site.exp

parallels@parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform:~/Desktop/Parallels Shared Folders/FlDist/trunk/testsuite$ runtest --version

DejaGnu version 1.6.2

Expect version 5.45.4

Tcl version 8.6

parallels@parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform:~/Desktop/Parallels Shared Folders/FlDist/trunk/testsuite$ uname -a

Linux parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform 5.4.0-42-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 10 00:24:02 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

parallels@parallels-Parallels-Virtual-Platform:~/Desktop/Parallels Shared Folders/FlDist/trunk/testsuite$