Austin Group Defect Tracker

Aardvark Mark IV


Viewing Issue Simple Details Jump to Notes ] Issue History ] Print ]
ID Category Severity Type Date Submitted Last Update
0000581 [1003.1(2008)/Issue 7] Shell and Utilities Objection Enhancement Request 2012-06-15 18:20 2019-06-10 08:55
Reporter schweikh View Status public  
Assigned To ajosey
Priority normal Resolution Accepted  
Status Closed  
Name Jens Schweikhardt
Organization
User Reference
Section 2.10.2 Shell Grammar Rules
Page Number 2325pp
Line Number 73562-73564 (C082 this time :-)
Interp Status Approved
Final Accepted Text See Note: 0001304
Summary 0000581: Grammar does not accept 'for i; do ...; done'
Description The shell grammar does not accept 'for i; do ...; done' because it
requires a 'linebreak' token after the 'i' token. However, existing
practice of the most common shells is to accept it:

$ echo 'for i; do echo $i; done' > tst.sh
$ for sh in sh bash zsh ksh93 pdksh dash; do $sh -n tst.sh && echo $sh:ok; done
sh:ok # FreeBSD's ash
bash:ok
zsh:ok
ksh93:ok
pdksh:ok
dash:ok

In order to standardize existing practice, it suffices to replace the
"linebreak" with "empty or sequential_sep". This works without new conflicts.
Desired Action in section 2.10.2 Shell Grammar Rules,
change the for_clause in the indicated lines from


for_clause : For name linebreak do_group
                 | For name linebreak in sequential_sep do_group
                 | For name linebreak in wordlist sequential_sep do_group
                 ;

to

for_clause : For name do_group
                 | For name sequential_sep do_group
                 | For name linebreak in sequential_sep do_group
                 | For name linebreak in wordlist sequential_sep do_group
                 ;
Tags tc2-2008
Attached Files

- Relationships

-  Notes
(0001260)
jilles (reporter)
2012-06-15 21:27

Although I think it is a good idea to standardize this commonly used variation, this grammar change would unfortunately require ksh93 to change. While ksh93 allows for name; do ... it does not allow for name;<newline>do ... which is obtained by putting ;<newline> for the sequential_sep instead of the more common semicolon or newline by themselves.
(0001261)
Don Cragun (manager)
2012-06-15 21:48
edited on: 2012-06-15 21:48

If you go down in the grammar where "linebreak" and "newline_list" are defined on P2330, L73660-73665 are defined, you'll see that a "linebreak" is zero or more <newline>s (not one or more <newline>s).

(0001262)
schweikh (reporter)
2012-06-16 09:05
edited on: 2012-06-20 18:10

If my original proposal is considered problematic, a minimum grammar adjustment is adding "| For name ';' do_group" to the for_clause (no new conflicts as well).
But note that all the other shells accept the grammar as originally proposed. Maybe it is an option for ksh93 to adapt and become more "standard" (or "non-standard", depending on your point of view)? How much of a burden on David or the ast-developers would it actually be? I tend to think the change makes the grammar more permissive along the lines of "you can always add a ; where a <newline> is".

(0001263)
s_mascheck (reporter)
2012-06-16 11:08
edited on: 2012-06-16 11:10

PS: Why do ksh93 (and 86+88) behave like this, and why does the grammar have this issue at all? The reason might be that ksh shared some code with the traditional Bourne shell which doesn't accept "for i; do" or "for i;<newline>do", but only the variants without semicolon [update: wrongly wrote <newline> at first].

(0001304)
nick (manager)
2012-07-12 15:50
edited on: 2012-08-30 09:17

Interpretation response
------------------------
The standard states that the shell grammar does not accept such usage, and conforming implementations must conform to this. However, concerns have been raised about this which are being referred to the sponsor.

Rationale:
-------------
Since all existing implementations either accept the enhanced grammar, or have patches
available to fix it, a future version of this standard should relax this constraint.
In particular, David Korn, author and maintainer of the Korn Shell, says:

> From: David Korn
> Subject: Re: Austin Group bug 0000581: Grammar does not accept 'for i; do ...; done'
> Date: 29 June 2012 17:04:31 GMT+01:00
>
>
> Subject: Re: Austin Group bug 0000581: Grammar does not accept 'for i; do ...; done'
> --------
>
> I have no objections. I have already made the change and it is in the
> beta version posted on our website.
>
> It was a one line change.
>
> David Korn
>

Notes to the Editor (not part of this interpretation):
-------------------------------------------------------
Implement the change suggested in the Desired Action.

(0001359)
ajosey (manager)
2012-08-30 09:18

Interpretation proposed 30 August 2012 for final 30 day review
(0001509)
ajosey (manager)
2013-03-29 08:01

Interpretation approved 29 Mar 2013

- Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh New Issue
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh Status New => Under Review
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh Assigned To => ajosey
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh Name => Jens Schweikhardt
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh Section => 2.10.2 Shell Grammar Rules
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh Page Number => 2325pp
2012-06-15 18:20 schweikh Line Number => 73562-73564 (C082 this time :-)
2012-06-15 21:27 jilles Note Added: 0001260
2012-06-15 21:48 Don Cragun Note Added: 0001261
2012-06-15 21:48 Don Cragun Note Edited: 0001261
2012-06-16 09:05 schweikh Note Added: 0001262
2012-06-16 09:08 schweikh Note Edited: 0001262
2012-06-16 11:08 s_mascheck Note Added: 0001263
2012-06-16 11:10 s_mascheck Note Edited: 0001263
2012-06-20 18:10 schweikh Note Edited: 0001262
2012-07-12 15:50 nick Interp Status => ---
2012-07-12 15:50 nick Note Added: 0001304
2012-07-12 15:50 nick Status Under Review => Interpretation Required
2012-07-12 15:50 nick Resolution Open => Accepted
2012-07-12 15:50 nick Final Accepted Text => See Note: 0001304
2012-07-12 15:51 nick Tag Attached: tc2-2008
2012-07-12 15:51 nick Interp Status --- => Pending
2012-08-30 09:17 ajosey Note Edited: 0001304
2012-08-30 09:18 ajosey Interp Status Pending => Proposed
2012-08-30 09:18 ajosey Note Added: 0001359
2013-03-29 08:01 ajosey Interp Status Proposed => Approved
2013-03-29 08:01 ajosey Note Added: 0001509
2019-06-10 08:55 agadmin Status Interpretation Required => Closed


Mantis 1.1.6[^]
Copyright © 2000 - 2008 Mantis Group
Powered by Mantis Bugtracker