Re: [PATCH 2/2] Makefile: work around ksh's failure to handle missing list argument to for loop

From: Johannes Sixt <j.sixt@viscovery.net>
To: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>
Cc: Brandon Casey <casey@nrlssc.navy.mil>,
	gitster@pobox.com, git@vger.kernel.org, PWalker752@aol.com,
	newsletter@dirk.my1.cc, bruce.stephens@isode.com,
	Brandon Casey <drafnel@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] Makefile: work around ksh's failure to handle missing list argument to for loop
Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 08:19:26 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <4C31796E.9050109@viscovery.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4C30D4D5.3020900@drmicha.warpmail.net>

Am 7/4/2010 20:37, schrieb Michael J Gruber:
> Brandon Casey venit, vidit, dixit 02.07.2010 20:50:
>> In this case, the for loop in the Makefile expands to look like this:
>>
>>    for p in ; do
>>
>> and ksh complains like this:
>>
>>    /bin/ksh: syntax error at line 15 : `;' unexpected
>>
>> The existing attempt to work around this issue, introduced by 70b89f87,
>> tried to protect the for loop by first testing whether REMOTE_CURL_ALIASES
>> was empty, but it does not seem to work.  So adopt Bruce Stephens's
> 
> What does that mean? Either it works or it doesn't. I did work back
> then. Does it (i.e.: the test for emtyness) fail to work for certain shells?

Before the test for emptyness can happen, the complete statement must be
parsed, but ksh finds a syntax error in the statement and, therefore,
cannot even begin to execute the statement. (ksh doesn't follow POSIX in
this regard, where this would not be a syntax error.)

-- Hannes