[XeTeX] XeTeX's bug: specifical filename leads to error

[George N. White III]

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 8:29 AM, Norman Gray <norman at astro.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> On 2009 Sep 26, at 16:59, Peter Dyballa wrote:
>
>> Am 26.09.2009 um 07:38 schrieb masterray:
>>
>>> I use Ubuntu 9.04 + XeTeX 3.1415926-2.2-0.999.6. When I type 'xelatex
>>> vijos\ solutions.tex' or 'xelatex vijos\ solutions.tex ' or other similar
>>> filenames in Bash, XeLaTeX gives strange error message. I ensure my .tex
>>> file is correct and even though 'vijos solutions.tex' is empty, XeLaTeX
>>> gives the error message. I think this must be a filename bug of XeLaTeX.
>>
>> It was acknowledged to be a bug and is fixed in TeX Live 2009-pretest
>> (works quite reliable, needing a proof against this opinion). A workaround
>> is *not* to use bash. Tcsh does not show this. Another workaround, in bash,
>> is to create a hard-link <file_name> of <name with space(s)> and running
>> xelatex on it...
>
>
> Out of curiousity, is there a pointer to this bug?

It was the subject of a thread earlier this month.  Quoting a posting
from Jonathan Kew:
 ---------------------
I think this is a bug in xetex's filename-quoting code. I have been
able to reproduce the behavior with the current xetex binary from
TL'09, but not with a local build; this is probably due to differences
in compiler version, options, or environment that affect the details
of how memory allocation happens to turn out.

Anyhow, I will check in a fix for what I believe is the underlying
error, and hope that when Dick rebuilds the binaries, the bug will be
eradicated.

(committed to TL as xetex 0.9995.2, svn r.15135)

JK
 ---------------------

This suggests the change in shell might hide the bug by affecting
memory allocation. The SVN log entry is:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r15135 | jonathan | 2009-09-05 19:28:24 +0200 (Sat, 05 Sep 2009) | 1 line

xetex 0.9995.2, trying to fix filename-quoting bug

Changed paths:
   M /trunk/Build/source/texk/web2c/lib/texmfmp.c
   M /trunk/Build/source/texk/web2c/xetexdir/xetex.ch
------------------------------------------------------------------------

> I tried to reproduce it (with the same XeTeX version) and failed, and I'm
> puzzled thinking of what sort of filename bug could conceivably be worked
> around by a change of shell.
>
> Don't go to any trouble, anyone, but if you happen to have a URL to hand...
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Norman
>
>
> --
> Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
> Dept Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, UK
>
>



-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia