Re: zgrep bug

[Paul Eggert]

address@hidden writes:

> /opt/exp/gnu/bin/zgrep: syntax error at line 61: `(' unexpected

Thanks for the bug report.  I think you have an old-fashioned shell
that doesn't understand "(" in the front of shell case labels.  To
work around the problem, you can set the SHELL environment variable to
the fully-qualified name of a modern (i.e., POSIX-conforming) shell
before running 'configure'.  This should cause zgrep to use a better
shell and avoid the bug.

I have installed the following patch to gzip, so that its build
procedure detects the problem in future gzip versions.

2007-04-28  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * m4/shell.m4 (AC_PROG_SHELL): Check for old-fashioned shells that
        don't allow "(" in front of case labels.  Problem reported by midair
        in <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gzip/2007-04/msg00004.html>.
        Also, check for buggy shells that require ";;" before "esac".

Index: m4/shell.m4
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/gzip/gzip/m4/shell.m4,v
retrieving revision 1.7
diff -u -p -r1.7 shell.m4
--- m4/shell.m4 13 Apr 2007 21:42:54 -0000      1.7
+++ m4/shell.m4 29 Apr 2007 05:24:24 -0000
@@ -37,15 +37,15 @@ AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_SHELL],
       ac_cv_path_shell=no

       case $SHELL in
-      /*)
+      (/*)
        rm -f conftest.c
        if ("$SHELL" -c "$ac_command") 2>/dev/null; then
          ac_cv_path_shell=$SHELL
-       fi;;
+       fi
       esac

       case $ac_cv_path_shell in
-      no)
+      (no)
        # Prefer shells that are more likely to be installed in the
        # same place on all hosts of this platform.  Therefore, prefer
        # shells in /bin and /usr/bin to shells in the installer's
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_SHELL],
        do
          IFS=$as_save_IFS
          case $as_dir in
-         /*)
+         (/*)
            for ac_base in sh bash ksh sh5; do
              rm -f conftest.c
              if ("$as_dir/$ac_base" -c "$ac_command") 2>/dev/null; then
@@ -66,11 +66,11 @@ AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_SHELL],
              fi
            done
            case $ac_cv_path_shell in
-           /*) break;;
-           esac;;
+           (/*) break
+           esac
          esac
        done
-       rm -f conftest.c;;
+       rm -f conftest.c
       esac])
    AC_MSG_RESULT($ac_cv_path_shell)
    SHELL=$ac_cv_path_shell