[MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Bugs-802736 ] Double quotes inside single quotes interpreted as escape

Bugs item #802736, was opened at 2003-09-08 13:47
Message generated for change (Settings changed) made by earnie
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Category: binutils
>Group: Aged issue
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Out of Date
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Don Stauffer (donstauffer)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Double quotes inside single quotes interpreted as escape

Initial Comment:
This looks the same as bug 546547, but that bug 
has "invalid" as "Resolution" and is closed, but the bug 
does still exist.  It also seems like the real problem is 
that double quotes inside single quotes are interpreted 
as an escape, the same as a backslash.  In the 
attached example makefile, the last test string before 
the workaround shows that the sequence '"n' is 
interpreted as a newline.  Double quotes inside single 
quotes should be considered literal characters, probably 
whether or not they are preceded by a single backslash, 
though definitely when they are not.

The example makefile produces the following output with 
MinGW make version 3.80:

Should be a literal double quote:
printf 'abc"xyz'
abcprintf: missing hexadecimal number in escape
mingw32-make: [example] Error 1 (ignored)


Should be a literal double quote:
printf 'abc\"xyz\n\n'
abc\xyz

Should be a newline:
printf 'abc\nxyz'
abc
xyz

Should be a literal backslash and double quote:
printf 'abc\\"xyz'
abc\printf: missing hexadecimal number in escape
mingw32-make: [example] Error 1 (ignored)


Should be a literal double quote and n
printf 'abc"nxyz'
abc
xyz

Workaround:
printf 'abc'"\""'xyz'
abc"xyz

With Cygwin make 3.79, it produces the following output:

Should be a literal double quote:
printf 'abc"xyz'
abc"xyz

Should be a literal double quote:
printf 'abc\"xyz\n\n'
abc"xyz

Should be a newline:
printf 'abc\nxyz'
abc
xyz

Should be a literal backslash and double quote:
printf 'abc\\"xyz'
abc\"xyz

Should be a literal double quote and n
printf 'abc"nxyz'
abc"nxyz

Workaround:
printf 'abc'"\""'xyz'
abc"xyz

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Comment By: Don Stauffer (donstauffer)
Date: 2003-09-14 22:39

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=861460

Sorry, what do you mean by "not mine"?

Actually, I downloaded the source and fixed this and another 
bug, only to find out someone just uploaded almost the exact 
same patch on Friday!

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Comment By: Danny Smith (dannysmith)
Date: 2003-09-12 03:51

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=11494

Not mine.
Danny

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Comment By: Don Stauffer (donstauffer)
Date: 2003-09-08 14:25

Message:
Logged In: YES 
user_id=861460

The cause of the problem appears to be that make removes 
the single quotes from any command arguments containing a 
double quote character.

Looking at the debugging output of make, the CreateProcess 
for printf is missing the single quotes around the argument to 
printf whenever that argument contains double quotes.  The 
last example, "Workaround", does not contain double quotes 
inside single quotes - they are inside their own set of double 
quotes.  For "Workaround", CreateProcess uses 
printf 'abc'\"\\\"\"'xyz' which has the single quotes
intact.

So, what should be (and is, in Cygwin make) printf 'abc"nxyz' 
comes out printf abc\"nxyz.  When I type that at a command 
prompt, the output is abc newline xyz, just as with MinGW 
make.

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You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=102435&aid=802736&group_id=2435