Subject: [PATCH] CodingGuidelines: quote assigned value with "local" and "export"

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 09:12:34 -0700

Dash bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dash/+bug/139097
lets the shell erroneously perform field splitting on the expansion
of a command substitution during declaration of a local or an extern
variable.

The explanation was stolen from ebee5580 (parallel-checkout: avoid
dash local bug in tests, 2021-06-06).

Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
---

 * The coding guidelines now forbids use of local/export var=$val
   without having $val quoted inside a pair of double quotes to
   avoid portability bugs.

> Isn't this the same as what ebee5580 (parallel-checkout: avoid dash
> local bug in tests, 2021-06-06) fixed?

 Documentation/CodingGuidelines | 14 ++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git i/Documentation/CodingGuidelines w/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
index 32e69f798e..8aa76094ca 100644
--- i/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
+++ w/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
@@ -188,6 +188,20 @@ For shell scripts specifically (not exhaustive):
    hopefully nobody starts using "local" before they are reimplemented
    in C ;-)
 
+ - Some versions of dash has broken variable assignment when prefixed
+   with "local", "export", and "readonly", in that the value to be
+   assigned goes through field splitting at $IFS unless quoted.  
+
+   DO NOT write:
+
+     local variable=$value           ;# wrong
+     export variable=$(command args) ;# wrong
+
+   and instead write:
+
+     local variable="$value"
+     export variable="$(command args)"
+
  - Use octal escape sequences (e.g. "\302\242"), not hexadecimal (e.g.
    "\xc2\xa2") in printf format strings, since hexadecimal escape
    sequences are not portable.