Re: "commands: arglist" mismatch between behaviour and documentation?

Thanks, Lars!

Side note about nested quoting, probably the cleanest and most flexible
syntax I've seen for nested quoting when it would otherwise get really
hairy, is that used by Postgres:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-syntax-lexical.html#SQL-SYNTAX-DOLLAR-QUOTING

--Mike Weilgart

On Fri, Sep 15, 2023 at 2:28 AM 'Lars Erik Wik' via help-cfengine <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> Thanks for shedding a light on this issue again. I've linked the issues
> and pushed the CFE-2724 ticket to the top of the backlog. As a temporary
> workaround you can use nested quoting, e.g.:
>
> ```
> $ cat ~/test.cf
> bundle agent __main__
> {
>   files:
>     "/tmp/test.py"
>       content => "import sys; print(*(arg for arg in sys.argv), sep='\n')";
>   commands:
>     "/usr/bin/python3 /tmp/test.py"
>       args => "two `three four`",
>       arglist => { "five", "'six seven'" };
> }
> $ /var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent -Kf ~/test.cf
>   notice: Q: "...in/python3 /tmp": /tmp/test.py
> Q: "...in/python3 /tmp": two
> Q: "...in/python3 /tmp": three four
> Q: "...in/python3 /tmp": five
> Q: "...in/python3 /tmp": six seven
> ```
>
> On Friday, September 15, 2023 at 6:01:50 AM UTC+2 [email protected]
> wrote:
>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> I thought this sounded familiar, and indeed, I reported the same bug five
>> years ago!  https://northerntech.atlassian.net/browse/CFE-2869
>>
>> And it was reported a year before that as well:
>> https://northerntech.atlassian.net/browse/CFE-2724
>>
>> And David, I see that you've now successfully reported the issue as
>> https://northerntech.atlassian.net/browse/CFE-4253, also.
>>
>> To Northern Tech: I suggest that the code should be fixed for a future
>> CFEngine version, AND that the documentation should be fixed for all
>> existing CFEngine versions.  Should be modified to better describe what the
>> code actually does, and then a note should be inserted in a little text box
>> for the benefit of those rereading the docs who've read it before, saying
>> something like, "NOTE: This documentation previously implied that the
>> elements of arglist were each treated as separate arguments and could
>> contain spaces or quotes; however the behavior of the code did not match
>> this documentation, so the documentation has been updated.  A future
>> CFEngine version may modify this behavior; see (link) for the bug tracking
>> info."
>>
>> Or just quietly update the doc to be more precisely descriptive, since it
>> doesn't actually *say* how the arglist is currently processed, it just
>> implies it with the "particularly useful" statement.
>>
>> The documentation fix should be fairly trivial and I submit there's
>> really no good reason to leave inaccurate documentation there to trip
>> people up, even if the coding fix takes a while to prioritize and
>> accomplish.
>>
>> ...Hmm, interesting, I think there is currently no way to have explicit
>> control over how CFEngine handles the whitespace splitting in a commands
>> promise...maybe an attribute for this could be added, with the default set
>> to be the current behavior, for backward compatibility.  Maybe call it
>> "argsplitting" and default it to "whitespace" (IF that is an accurate
>> description of current code behavior; I think it is), and have another
>> option "none" which would result in *args* being treated as one single
>> argument; and *arglist* being treated as exactly as many arguments as
>> appear as elements in that list.
>>
>> Best,
>> --Mike Weilgart
>> On Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 7:26:03 AM UTC-7
>> [email protected] wrote:
>>
>>> I appear no longer to have login access to be able to report issues.
>>> (Previous issues with my involvement include CFE-3020, CFE-1655, CFE-2908,
>>> etc.)  I'm trying to regain that access, but it is not proving easy!  If
>>> that can be restored then I can report the issue.
>>>
>>> Otherwise, could you log the issue for me?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> -- David Lee
>>> On Wednesday, 13 September 2023 at 14:55:30 UTC+1
>>> [email protected] wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, 2023-09-13 at 06:38 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>>>> > Using 3.18.5 community edition on RHEL9; also 3.15 on RHEL7 and RHEL8
>>>> >
>>>> > Documentation
>>>> https://docs.cfengine.com/docs/3.18/reference-promise-types-commands.html
>>>> gives the example:
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> > commands: "/bin/echo one" args => "two three", arglist => { "four",
>>>> "five" };
>>>> > So in the example above the command would be:
>>>> >  /bin/echo one two three four five
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >
>>>> > It also states:-------------------------------------------------
>>>> > That's particularly useful when there are embedded spaces and quotes
>>>> in your arguments...
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >
>>>> > So I'm trying to build something, specifically requiring that
>>>> "embedded spaces" claim.  But I hit a problem, so strip it down to a
>>>> proof-of-concept script:
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> > #! /bin/bash
>>>> > echo "argcount: $#"
>>>> > for (( i=1 ; i<=$#; i++))
>>>> > do
>>>> >   echo "${i}:${!i}"
>>>> > done
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >
>>>> > At the command line I verify the script:
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> > $ ./modules/printargs A B "C with spaces" D
>>>> > argcount: 4
>>>> > 1:A
>>>> > 2:B
>>>> > 3:C with spaces
>>>> > 4:D
>>>> > $
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> > (Four arguments, the third being three words with embedded spaces.)
>>>> >
>>>> > I then run it from within our CFEngine framework:
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >   commands:
>>>> >     any::
>>>> >       "$(gcom.modulesdir)/printargs"
>>>> >         arglist => { "A", "B", "C with spaces", "D" };
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >
>>>> > But instead of receiving four arguments, it receives six: here's the
>>>> CFE "inform" output:
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >     info: Executing 'no timeout' ... '[...]/modules/printargs A B C
>>>> with spaces D'
>>>> >   notice: Q: ".../printargs A B ": argcount: 6
>>>> > Q: ".../printargs A B ": 1:A
>>>> > Q: ".../printargs A B ": 2:B
>>>> > Q: ".../printargs A B ": 3:C
>>>> > Q: ".../printargs A B ": 4:with
>>>> > Q: ".../printargs A B ": 5:spaces
>>>> > Q: ".../printargs A B ": 6:D
>>>> >     info: Last 7 quoted lines were generated by promiser
>>>> > -------------------------------------------------
>>>> >  That useful "embedded spaces" claim in the documentation seems to be
>>>> being ignored.
>>>> >
>>>> > Is the bug/problem:
>>>> >  * in the code
>>>> >  * or in the documentation
>>>> >  * or in my interpretation of the documentation
>>>> > Help appreciated
>>>> Definitely looks like a bug in the CFEngine code to me. I'm just
>>>> surprised there's no failing test
>>>> for this. Please report the issue at
>>>> https://northerntech.atlassian.net/browse/CFE
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Vratislav
>>>>
>>> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the
> Google Groups "help-cfengine" group.
> To unsubscribe from this topic, visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/topic/help-cfengine/70qc5E83BMA/unsubscribe.
> To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to
> [email protected].
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/help-cfengine/7f369e0e-4b13-460a-a613-5538835a628dn%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/help-cfengine/7f369e0e-4b13-460a-a613-5538835a628dn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "help-cfengine" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/help-cfengine/CAG2q_3yKZm_ZWB2sJ-jz6oOXvqb8Ms9qb6nAfCZsB_iDqT8Rrw%40mail.gmail.com.