R devel - Jul 2001 - Rd2dvi - script (PR#1029)

Full_Name: Ole Christensen
Version: 1.3.0
OS: Solaris
Submission from: (NULL) (130.225.48.2)


I have discovered a problem with script Rd2dvi for R-1.3.0 on our Solaris
machines.
When writing R CMD Rd2dvi Name_of_Package, then things go wrong with the 
conversion to Latex of the DESCRIPTION file in the package.

Having discussed the problem with our system administrator, he constructed a 
script illustrating the problem (see below: script a, and output b). 
It seems that our Solaris machines makes a further expansion in the shell
scripts 
than intended ( \\b  ->  \b  ->  <Backspace> ). 

We have also tested the script on a SunOS 4.1.2 and a Debian/GNU Linux 2.0.36 
machine, where everything worked fine.

script a:

#!/user/flemming/aa/sh

Rd_DESCRIPTION_to_LaTeX () {
  echo '\\begin{description}'
  echo "\\begin{description}"
  echo "\\raggedright{}"
  echo "\\end{description}"
}

touch b
Rd_DESCRIPTION_to_LaTeX >> b

------

output b:

\begin{description}
egin{description}

aggedright{}
\end{description}



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>>>>> olefc  writes:
> Full_Name: Ole Christensen
> Version: 1.3.0
> OS: Solaris
> Submission from: (NULL) (130.225.48.2)
> I have discovered a problem with script Rd2dvi for R-1.3.0 on our
> Solaris machines.  When writing R CMD Rd2dvi Name_of_Package, then
> things go wrong with the conversion to Latex of the DESCRIPTION file
> in the package.
> Having discussed the problem with our system administrator, he
> constructed a script illustrating the problem (see below: script a,
> and output b).  It seems that our Solaris machines makes a further
> expansion in the shell scripts than intended ( \\b -> \b ->
> <Backspace> ).
> We have also tested the script on a SunOS 4.1.2 and a Debian/GNU Linux
> 2.0.36 machine, where everything worked fine.
> ...
Thanks for pointing this out.

As newer versions of the autoconf manual point out

	The simple @code{echo} is probably the most surprising source of
	portability troubles.  It is not possible to use @samp{echo}
	portably unless both options and escape sequences are omitted.
	New applications which are not aiming at portability should use
	@samp{printf} instead of @samp{echo}.

	...

	Do not use backslashes in the arguments, as there is no
	consensus on their handling.

The problem is that Solaris builtin echo and /usr/bin/echo by default
interpret `\b' et al as special backslash-escaped sequences.

The solution is not to use echo for producing LaTeX text but here
documents instead.  Will fix.

[There is similar code in doc/manual/Makefile.in, but it does not use
any `recognized' escape sequences ...]

-k
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