External command parameters get mangled

[panicbit]

Describe the bug

External command paramaters get stripped of their outmost single quotes when their prefix contains an =.

How to reproduce

• ^echo "= 'hi'"
• ^echo "foo=bar 'hi'"

Expected behavior

I expect the parameters do behave the same as with non-external commands:

• echo "= 'hi'"
• echo "foo=bar 'hi'"

Configuration

key	value
version	0.67.1
branch
commit_hash	0afe1e4
build_os	linux-x86_64
build_target	x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
rust_version	rustc 1.63.0 (4b91a6ea7 2022-08-08)
rust_channel	stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
cargo_version	cargo 1.63.0 (fd9c4297c 2022-07-01)
pkg_version	0.67.1
build_time	2022-08-24 11:35:06 +02:00
build_rust_channel	release
features	database, dataframe, default, trash, which, zip
installed_plugins

[fdncred]

I thought there was a PR a few weeks ago that stripped quotes like this on purpose?
I think this is the one I'm thinking about #5846

[panicbit]

I think the idea was to only strip it for flags, which I can understand somewhat, but I don't think stripping all quotes for any arg was the intention.

[panicbit]

Maybe it's important to note that this issue affects a real life use case (in fact, one of my scripts at work broke due to the change):

let dump_command = $"PGPASSWORD='($db_secret)' pg_dump -Fc -h '($db.host)' -p '($db.port)' -U postgres -d '($db.name)' > '/tmp/($dump_name)'"

^kubectl exec -n $bastion.namespace $bastion_pod -- sh -c $dump_command

[fdncred]

I think the idea was to only strip it for flags, which I can understand somewhat, but I don't think stripping all quotes for any arg was the intention.

Ya, you're probably right. Your issue just made me think of where we remove quotes and that was the only one I remember.

[fdncred]

I'm not sure what changed to break your script. Feel free to look at PRs. Maybe it was a mistake or a bug.

I've started using parameters like this because it seems to work better.

^external_command [$arg1 $arg2 $arg3]

[panicbit]

In what ways does that work better? For the issue at hand at least it does not seem to matter:

[fdncred]

i guess i don't have anything that i call with parameters like this

[WindSoilder]

@panicbit Would you please verify if the latest main works for you with the following example?

let dump_command = $"PGPASSWORD='($db_secret)' pg_dump -Fc -h '($db.host)' -p '($db.port)' -U postgres -d '($db.name)' > '/tmp/($dump_name)'"

^kubectl exec -n $bastion.namespace $bastion_pod -- sh -c $""$dump_command""

[panicbit]

It does work (although the correct incantation is $""($dump_command)""), but I'm not gonna lie, I hope this is not the final solution for this problem, because this feels pretty insane.
Theoretically I would have to do $""arg"" with every parameter, just to make sure it doesn't get mangled.
I will probably never complain about having to put quotes around variable uses in other shells anymore…

[WindSoilder]

Yeah I agreed.

Sorry for the current situation. I think it's better to use just $dump_command

[WindSoilder]

@panicbit Hi, sorry for disturb, would you please check the latest main again?

I think $dump_command can be used directly for now

let dump_command = $"PGPASSWORD='($db_secret)' pg_dump -Fc -h '($db.host)' -p '($db.port)' -U postgres -d '($db.name)' > '/tmp/($dump_name)'"

^kubectl exec -n $bastion.namespace $bastion_pod -- sh -c $dump_command

[panicbit]

It works 🥳. Thanks for caring about this and putting in all the effort! 😃