[bug #15235] Leading directories are misparsed as expressions

[Eric Blake]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=15235>

                 Summary: Leading directories are misparsed as expressions
                 Project: findutils
            Submitted by: ericb
            Submitted on: Sat 12/17/05 at 21:59
                Category: find
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Wrong result
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Eric Blake
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: 4.2.27
           Fixed Release: None

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Details:

Per POSIX, http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/find.html,
"The first argument that starts with a '-', or is a '!' or a '(', and all
subsequent arguments shall be interpreted as an expression made up of the
following primaries and operators."

Therefore, the following invocations must treat their argument as a directory
name, rather than an expression (or portion thereof).

$ mkdir \(1 \!2 \)
$ touch \(1/a \!2/b \)/c

Buggy behavior:
$ find \)
find: invalid expression: you have too many ')'
$ find \!1
find: invalid predicate `!1'
$ find \(2
find: invalid predicate `(2'

Expected behavior:
$ find \(1 \!2 \)
(1
(1/a
!2
!2/b
)
)/c

As a side note, the errors are inconsistent in their use of '' vs. `'
quoting.







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