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Bug#243037: marked as done (menu files should not be allowed to play backticks/quotation games)

Your message dated Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:46:50 -0500
with message-id <87bquobdid.fsf@glaurung.internal.golden-gryphon.com>
and subject line Closing out ancient, fixed bugs
has caused the attached Bug report to be marked as done.

This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.

(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what I am
talking about this indicates a serious mail system misconfiguration
somewhere.  Please contact me immediately.)

Debian bug tracking system administrator
(administrator, Debian Bugs database)
--- Begin Message --- 
Package: debian-policy
Severity: normal

Hello,

I am worried about the uncertainnes WRT to usage of multi-word arguments
in the menu files. Some people expect it to work like a POSIX shell,
with quoting and escaping levels, different priority of " and ', as well
as embedded shell code in backticks, $() or simply shell variables. But
it leads to various problems:

a) the menu expects the strings to be enclosed by single or double
quotes. Including multiple words that are meant to be one program
argument should be done with which kind of quotes?
b) window managers are in problems with invoking this stuff. Using
exec() is not reliable, so system() must be used. This, OTOH, leads to
various problems with the quoting and embedded shell code.

I suggest one simple solution: the policy should now allow any
multi-word program arguments. The mixture described above leads only to
trouble. If someone wants to use them, it is pretty simple to write a
shell wrapper.

Regards,
Eduard.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.5-rc3
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
Versions: 3.7.0.0
-- 
Bridge ahead.  Pay troll.
Manoj Srivastava     <srivasta@acm.org>    <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C

--- End Message ---
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