Re: dash 0.5.13 configure config.status truncated running under dash 0.5.13

[Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@SystematicSW.ab.ca>]

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On 2025-09-29 04:29, Brian Inglis wrote:
> On 2025-09-29 03:37, Herbert Xu wrote:
>> Brian Inglis wrote:
>>>
>>> Applied and rebuilt, getting the same failure with identical ERROR messages and
>>> symptoms, after building okay with previous dash == sh, then rerunning with
>>> latest dash == sh.
>>>
>>> Do the previously highlighted configure script last two config.status generation
>>> stanzas seem to have issues, or is that as intended?
>>>
>>> It appears that the following _ACEOF\ncat >>$CONFIG_STATUS ... might be
>>> misplaced, as it is immediately followed by a list of sed commands.
>>
>> It looks identical to the configure script that I get from running
>> autoconf, and my copy works just fine, even with the buggy dash 0.5.13.
>>
>>> These stanzas come from /usr/share/autoconf{,2.7}/autoconf/status.m4
>>> included by /usr/share/autoconf{,2.7}/autoconf/autoconf.m4 frozen in
>>> /usr/share/autoconf{,2.7}/autoconf/autoconf.m4f.
>>>
>>> Or is this an issue that should be raised with the autoconf/autotools team?
>>
>> Based on the fact we just found two bugs in 0.5.13 that both broke
>> autoconf, it's probably a dash bug :)
>>
>> I just checked your original email and your configure script is
>> identical to mine.
>>
>> Can you please run configure with set -x and send me the result?
> Complete Cygwin build run with set -vx attached.

Reported the issue and questioned the code which disables VPATH and may not be 
used often on modern systems (report attached):

	https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?111321

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher  but when there is no more to cut
                                 -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?111321>

                 Summary: config.status generation by configure in dash 0.5.13
fails with ERROR
                   Group: Autoconf
               Submitter: None
               Submitted: Mon 29 Sep 2025 09:50:45 AM UTC
                Priority: 5 - Unprioritized
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
        Originator Email: Brian.Inglis@SystematicSW.ab.ca
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
        Operating System: Microsoft Windows


    _______________________________________________________

Follow-up Comments:


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon 29 Sep 2025 09:50:45 AM UTC By: Anonymous
Testing dash 0.5.13 by rebuilding under Cygwin with dash == sh causes failure
of configure when config.status is run, due to an unterminated null string
definition on the last line of config.status:
ac_sed_extra="

This appears to be generated by lib/autoconf/status.m4 about line 650 where
ac_sed_extra definition is added to config.status without a terminating '"';
it also appears that the here doc delimiter _ACEOF and following line with
`cat >> $CONFIG_STATUS ...` is followed by a sequence of sed commands, which
may be intended to be part of the definition, as it is '"' terminated.

However, this may be some clever shell scripting I don't understand, nor how
it gets generated into configure by autoconf, as there may be some misquoting
in effect somewhere. 

This appears in a number of recently updated packages' configure scripts, and
is not changed by autoreconf in the relevant lines. 

Generation of config.status has not been affected until latest dash was tested
as sh; bash and previous dash releases work okay.

The relevant bits of the autoconf macros have not changed in recent years: 

$ grep -A9 VPATH /usr/share/autoconf2.7/autoconf/status.m4
# VPATH may cause trouble with some makes, so we remove sole $(srcdir),
# ${srcdir} and @srcdir@ entries from VPATH if srcdir is ".", strip leading
and
# trailing colons and then remove the whole line if VPATH becomes empty
# (actually we leave an empty line to preserve line numbers).
if test "x$srcdir" = x.; then
  ac_vpsub=['/^[	 ]*VPATH[	 ]*=[	 ]*/{
h
s///
s/^/:/
s/[	 ]*$/:/
s/:\$(srcdir):/:/g
s/:\${srcdir}:/:/g
s/:@srcdir@:/:/g
s/^:*//
s/:*$//
--
# Neutralize VPATH when '$srcdir' = '.'.
# Shell code in configure.ac might set extrasub.
# FIXME: do we really want to maintain this feature?
cat >>$CONFIG_STATUS <<_ACEOF || ac_write_fail=1
ac_sed_extra="$ac_vpsub
$extrasub
_ACEOF
cat >>$CONFIG_STATUS <<\_ACEOF || ac_write_fail=1
:t
[/@[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*@/!b]








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