Problem in bin/sh stripping the * character through ${expansion%}

[Doug Barton]

Howdy,

I came across this problem during a recent portmaster update. When
trying to strip off the * character using variable expansion in bin/sh
it doesn't work. Other "special" characters do work if they are
properly escaped.

The attached mini-script clearly shows the problem:

$ sh sh-strip-problem
var before stripping: foo\*
var after stripping: foo\*

var before stripping: foo\$
var after stripping: foo\

In contrast, bash does the right thing:

bash sh-strip-problem
var before stripping: foo\*
var after stripping: foo\

var before stripping: foo\$
var after stripping: foo\

Should I go ahead and file a PR on this?


Doug

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var='foo\*'
echo "var before stripping: $var"
var=${var%\*}
echo "var after stripping: $var"
echo ''
var='foo\$'
echo "var before stripping: $var"
var=${var%\$}
echo "var after stripping: $var"

exit 0