Bug#270887: xbase-clients: startx and xinit do not preserve client arguments

[Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>]

Package: xbase-clients
Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4
Severity: important


There is a serious bug in both startx and xinit shell scripts, where
client args are not preserved as user has passed them. For example, to
use aewm++ window manager with custom arguments, like setting focus
modes and changing default mouse-3 binding command to run rxvt instead
of the default (hard coded) xterm, the command sequence would be:

  startx /usr/bin/aewm++ -fm sloppy \
  -new2 "rxvt -ls -sl 1000 -bg white -fg black" \
  -- :1

The net result is that startx doe snot preserve the ONE argument
double quoted string. It calls xinit and aewm++ like:

  ... -new2 rxvt -ls -sl 1000 -bg white ...

which results interpreting different meaning, when quotes are not
there any more. The -new2 option, which controls the program launced
with mouse-3, takes only "rxvt" and aewm++ reads next option as "-ls"
which is not recognizable. The intention was to use:

   -new2 "rxvt -ls -sl 1000 -bg white -fg black"


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.26-1-386
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US)

Versions of packages xbase-clients depends on:
ii  cpp                    4:3.3.4-2         The GNU C preprocessor (cpp)
ii  libc6                  2.3.2.ds1-13      GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libdps1                4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    Display PostScript (DPS) client li
ii  libexpat1              1.95.6-8          XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libfontconfig1         2.2.3-1           generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6           2.1.7-2.2         FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libice6                4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libncurses5            5.4-4             Shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libpng12-0             1.2.5.0-7         PNG library - runtime
ii  libsm6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System Session Management
ii  libstdc++5             1:3.3.4-6sarge1.2 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libxaw7                4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Athena widget set library
ii  libxcursor1            1.1.3-1           X cursor management library
ii  libxext6               4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxft2                2.1.2-6           FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxi6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System Input extension li
ii  libxmu6                4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System miscellaneous util
ii  libxmuu1               4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    lightweight X Window System miscel
ii  libxpm4                4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X pixmap library
ii  libxrandr2             4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System Resize, Rotate and
ii  libxrender1            0.8.3-7           X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxt6                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii  libxtrap6              4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System protocol-trapping 
ii  libxtst6               4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System event recording an
ii  libxv1                 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System video extension li
ii  xlibmesa-gl [libgl1]   4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    Mesa 3D graphics library [XFree86]
ii  xlibmesa-glu [libglu1] 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    Mesa OpenGL utility library [XFree
ii  xlibs                  4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System client libraries m
ii  xlibs-data             4.3.0.dfsg.1-4    X Window System client data
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.1.1-5       compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information