Re: weird behaviour of quotes in dash variable assignments
On Tue 22 Sep 2020 at 13:31:33 (-0400), Gary Dale wrote:
> On 2020-09-22 09:29, David Wright wrote:
> > On Mon 21 Sep 2020 at 20:50:29 (-0400), Gary Dale wrote:
> > > On 2020-09-21 10:30, David Wright wrote:
> > > > I think we should apply Hanlon's razor rather than saying the OP lied.
> > > > After all, "compare" means diff or cmp to us, whereas many might just
> > > > use their eyeballs. And we all know that authors are the worst people
> > > > to check their own work. Proof-reading is a special skill.
> > > >
> > > > Even their fix is poorly described. Did they just type the quotes back
> > > > in with an editor, in which case there's no guarantee that the scripts
> > > > are identical between machines, or did they transfer a working script
> > > > to the failing machine? The best line is save until last: "I certainly
> > > > didn't update anything on either server...". Well, yes, that's
> > > > *precisely* what you did: you updated the script.
> > ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
> > > You are taking my quote out of context. I didn't change anything on
> > > the server to make the script start working. I updated the script to
> > ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
> > > see if it would work after trying Greg's test. There were no program
> > > or setting updates on the server, and certainly nothing that updated
> > > dash. This is Debian/Stable we're talking about, after all.
> > Sorry, I thought you wrote that on Sunday afternoon, "I fixed it by
> > removing the quotes on the one server but now the scripts are
> > different between the two servers, which isn't what I want."
> > Then on Sunday evening, you wrote "When I retried my script with the
> > quotes, it started working."
> >
> > The general opinion is that the script was faulty, probably in the
> > quotes used. The narrative says that you removed the quotes, and
> > later put them back. It seems fair to suggest that the quotes you
> > put back were not the same ones that you removed. They were replaced
> > in the same location, but you didn't put the old (removed) quotes
> > into a little two-character file, so that you could put precisely
> > the same ones back into the script, did you?
> I thought about that but then there would be no way I could
> demonstrate it other than what I did - post the offending line via cut
> & paste, a method people have been arguing can change the quotes.
> >
> > > Since it is a file server, there probably were changes to the files on
> > > its shares, but I'd hardly count that as an "update". Similarly, it
> > > was running cron jobs for backups and virus scans (unsuccessfully) but
> > > again I wouldn't call those "updates".
> > Nor I. No, I'm only talking about your script. Does it bear any
> > relation to the one posted in your blog? The first line (after
> > the shebang) of the one in the blog is the same line that's under
> > discussion here, and has curly quotes. I can't parse the second
> > line's curly quotes, and the fourth line uses an n-dash for a
> > hyphen *though the other hyphens are ok). The fifth line uses
> > curly single-quotes. More curly quotes follow.
> >
> > I don't see any cause for our wasting time pondering on dash
> > without your posting an MWE that unambiguously demonstrates a
> > problem.
> Yes, that's the script - copy-pasted from the working server then with
> the e-mail addresses changed (they are actually parameters to the
> working script, but why complicate things when explaining a basic
> script). As you noted, it has changed things - hopefully not to the
> point that people won't be able to make it work. I haven't found a way
> to stop Wordpress from doing the substitution but I note the raw text
> is still correct (once you remove the html).
That I can believe. The substitutions appear to be systematic,
<non-space><quote> → 99-style, and <space><quote> → 66-style,
-- → n-dash, --- → m-dash; I think that covers it. And that might be
something you cannot change: I see it converts your apostrophes
in running text too.
But I don't see why you can't post emails with unadulterated
characters. You can obviously read and copy the working script
yourself, so you can at least paste it into a file on your
email computer, using cat >file if necessary¹, and then
InsertFile the file into your email composer. Your running text
has ASCII quotes, after all. That should avoid any problem like
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2020/09/msg00677.html
where your script fragment *still* has curly quotes but your
speech marks are ASCII.
I think it's reasonable, when you're reporting non-identical
behaviour from supposedly identical systems, to expect some
demonstration that the test cases and the reporting thereof
are, in fact, using identical scripts before eliminating
them from consideration.
¹ Run md5sum, as suggested earlier, on this file, the servers'
scripts, and any cut-down versions, to demonstrate they're
all the same. This avoids transferring files.
Cheers,
David.
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