Debian Testing VMWare-Tools Bad Variable Name

["Stephen P. Molnar" <s.molnar@sbcglobal.net>]

I am using VMWare Reader v-5.0.2 and the associated VMWare Tools with 
both Debian v-7.1.0 and Debian Testing (different VMWare Reader 
directories, of course) installed on my 64 bit Windows 7 laptop as 
testbeds before making any changes to my Linux production machine.

In the case of Debian 7.1.0 the vmware tools installed without any problems.

Unfortunately, this was not the case with Debian Testing.  the tools 
installed without any problems, but when the installer ran 
/usr/bin/ware/vmware.config.tools.pl there were errors:

> Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
>    Switching to guest configuration: done
> /etc/init.d/vmware-tools: 1090: local: ': bad variable name
> /etc/init.d/vmware-tools: 1090: local: ': bad variable name
>    Blocking file system:failed
> /etc/init.d/vmware-tools: 1187: local: ': bad variable name
>    Guest operating system daemon: done
> Unable to start services for VMware Tools
 The lines in question are:

1090   local run_kver=`get_version_integer`

and

1187    local run_kver=`get_version_integer`

I don't have the faintest idea as to what the error is and would 
appreciate any pointers towards a solution.

Thanks in advance.