[Bug build/18898] New: Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[Bug build/18898] New: Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[eliz at gnu dot org]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18898

            Bug ID: 18898
           Summary: Cannot specify non-default list of directories as
                    argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows
           Product: gdb
           Version: 7.10
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: build
          Assignee: unassigned at sourceware dot org
          Reporter: eliz at gnu dot org
  Target Milestone: ---

An attempt to specify on MS-Windows non-default values for the GDB
configure-time options --with-auto-load-dir and --with-auto-load-safe-path
fails because everything after the first semi-colon is removed.

The semi-colon ';' is the directory separator character in PATH-style lists of
directories on MS-Windows.  However, using it in the argument to these two
configure-time options, for example:

  --with-auto-load-safe-path='$debugdir;$datadir/../auto-load'

causes this to be written to gdb/config.h:

  #define AUTO_LOAD_SAFE_PATH "$debugdir"

where everything beyond the first semi-colon was removed, even though the whole
argument was quoted with '..', as shown above.

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[Bug build/18898] Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[jan.kratochvil at redhat dot com]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18898

Jan Kratochvil <jan.kratochvil at redhat dot com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |jan.kratochvil at redhat dot com

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[Bug build/18898] Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[eliz at gnu dot org]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18898

--- Comment #1 from Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org> ---
In https://sourceware.org/pipermail/gdb-patches/2023-October/203020.html Thiago
Jung Bauermann <thiago.bauermann@linaro.org> proposed a workaround, which was
found to work perfectly.

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[Bug build/18898] Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[thiago.bauermann at linaro dot org]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18898

Thiago Jung Bauermann <thiago.bauermann at linaro dot org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |thiago.bauermann at linaro dot org

--- Comment #2 from Thiago Jung Bauermann <thiago.bauermann at linaro dot org> ---
I looked into this issue a bit more today. Here is my understanding of the
problem:

It happens because the AC_DEFINE_DIR macro calls eval twice on the value
provided via these configure options, causing the ';' to be interpreted by the
shell.  E.g.,

  $ ~/src/binutils-gdb/configure \
      --disable-{binutils,ld,gold,gas,sim,gprof,gprofng} \
      --with-auto-load-dir='foo;bar' && make
      ⋮
  checking for default auto-load directory...
/home/bauermann/src/binutils-gdb/gdb/configure: line 18004: bar: command not
found
  foo;bar
  checking for default auto-load safe-path...
/home/bauermann/src/binutils-gdb/gdb/configure: line 18031: bar: command not
found
  foo;bar

Line 18004 is:

  ac_define_dir=`eval echo $escape_dir`

Line 18031 is identical.

With some escaping, it's possible to avoid the problem:

  $ ~/src/binutils-gdb/configure \
      --disable-{binutils,ld,gold,gas,sim,gprof,gprofng} \
      --with-auto-load-dir='foo\\\;bar\\\;baz' && make
      ⋮
  checking for default auto-load directory... foo\\\;bar\\\;baz
  checking for default auto-load safe-path... foo\\\;bar\\\;baz
      ⋮
  $ grep AUTO_LOAD gdb/config.h
  #define AUTO_LOAD_DIR "foo;bar;baz"
  #define AUTO_LOAD_SAFE_PATH "foo;bar;baz"

We provide the definition of AC_DEFINE_DIR in gdb/acinclude.m4 so the simplest
approach to fix this problem would be to remove the evals from the macro.

I don't know why they are there however, so a more conservative solution is to
make gdb/configure.ac automatically add those escaping characters to the values
of the options if the host OS is Windows.

I just posted a patch doing that:

https://inbox.sourceware.org/gdb-patches/20231026234013.937210-1-thiago.bauermann@linaro.org/

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[Bug build/18898] Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[eliz at gnu dot org]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18898

--- Comment #3 from Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org> ---
As of GDB 15, the patch proposed by Thiago is not yet in the GDB sources.

Could someone please install the patch, so that this nuisance could be avoided
once and for all??

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[Bug build/18898] Cannot specify non-default list of directories as argument of --with-auto-load-dir on Windows

[thiago.bauermann at linaro dot org]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=18898

--- Comment #4 from Thiago Jung Bauermann <thiago.bauermann at linaro dot org> ---
I just verified that it still applies cleanly and works correctly, and pinged
the patch on the mailing list.

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