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Last update: 1997-05-20
9945-2-106
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Topic: mailx and quoting ambiguity
Relevant Sections: 4.40.7.2
Defect Report:
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Date: Tue, 4 Apr 1995 14:37:40
From: Andrew Josey
Dear Standards Board,
I would like to request a formal interpretation on the following
issue concerning the mailx utility in POSIX.2.
POSIX.2 says in 4.40.7.2
" - An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes (" ")
or single-quotes (' '); any white space, shell word expansion or backslash
characters within the quotes will be treated literally as part of the
argument. A double- quote will be treated literally within single-
quotes and vice versa. "
It then says that
File names, where expected, shall be subjected to the process of shell word
expansions ....
My reading of this (and confirmed by historical implementations) is that the
arguments are parsed, and mailx does not interpret the contents of an
argument quoted by "" or ''.
Then, iff the argument to the command specifies a filename; the argument is
subjected to the process of shell word expansion.
This allows the use of commands such as
? write "$((1 + 3))" # uses filename "4"
? save "$(date +%A)" # used filename e.g. "Tuesday"
Is this interpretation correct?
Interpretation response
------------------------
The standard is unclear on this issue, and no conformance
distinction can be made between alternative implementations
based on this. This is being referred to the sponsor.
Rationale:
None
Forwarded to Interpretations group: Apr 5 1995
Proposed resolution circulated: May 16th
Comments due: June 15th
Date Finalised: June 16th