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Problem Report 0706 Details

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Report 0706 Actions

    Problem Report Number 0706
    Submitter's Classification Specification problem
    State Resolved
    Resolution Permanent Interpretation (PIN)
    Problem Resolution ID PIN.X.0099
    Raised 1970-01-01 08:00
    Updated 2003-03-13 08:00
    Published 1996-01-25 08:00
    Product Standard Commands and Utilities V2 (UNIX 95)
    Certification Program The Open Brand certification program
    Test Suite VSC version 4.1.4
    Test Identification POSIX.cmd/od 1003
    Specification Commands and Utilities Issue 4 Version 2
    Location in Spec See Problem Text
    Problem Summary PIN4C.00015 The test may fail because the standard contradicts itself regarding what characters are output as C escapes.
    Problem Text
    The test may fail because the standard contradicts itself regarding
    what characters are output as C escapes.

    The output shown above is misleading, as the way that it is journalled
    obscures the failure. (In fact, the "diff" in the output shows no
    differences between the expected and actual output. This is due to an
    error in the way the test suite's JrnlDiff utility handles output
    that has the two-character sequence "\n") Running the test case
    by hand, and saving the expected and actual output files, shows the
    following differences:

    *** out.stdout Tue Jan 16 14:14:22 1996
    --- od_eso_1003 Tue Jan 16 14:14:22 1996
    ***************
    *** 2,8 ****

    t h i s i s l i n e t w o
    o f i n p u t \n \0 001 002 003 004 005
    ! 006 007 \n \b \t \n 013 \f \r 016 017 \n 020 021 022 023
    024 025 026 027 \n 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 \n 177
    \n

    --- 2,8 ----

    t h i s i s l i n e t w o
    o f i n p u t \n \0 001 002 003 004 005
    ! 006 \a \n \b \t \n \v \f \r 016 017 \n 020 021 022 023
    024 025 026 027 \n 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 \n 177
    \n

    That is, the expected output has the escapes \a for \007 and \v for \013.
    These are the only differences.

    XPG4 Issue 4 Version 2 states, on page 535, under the definition of
    the -c option:

    Interpret bytes as characters specified by the current setting
    of the LC_CTYPE category. Certain non-graphic characters appear
    as C escapes: NUL=\0, BS=\b, FF=\f, NL=\n, CR=\r, HT=\t; others
    appear as 3-digit octal numbers. This is equivalent to -t c.

    Our output exactly matches this specification; the test suite's expected
    output does not. We believe this happens because of the "equivalent to
    -t c" sentence quoted above,

    The Extended Description section of the od spec mandates -t c
    behavior as follows


    The type specifier character c specifies that bytes will be
    interpreted as characters specified by the current setting of the
    LC_CTYPE locale category. Characters listed in the table in the
    XBD specification, Chapter 3, File Format Notation (\\, \a, \b,
    \f, \n, \r, \t, \v) will be written as the corresponding escape
    sequences, except that backslash will be written as a single
    backslash and a NUL will be written as \0.

    These two parts of the od spec are clearly at odds with each other.
    the test appears to expect the behavior mandated in the -t c wording.
    Test Output
    -----------------start of test output------------------

    400|232 1003 1 21:45:55|IC Start
    200|232 1 21:45:55|TP Start
    520|232 1 24174 1 1|Assertion #1003 (A): Verify that 'od -c' interpret bytes as
    characters in ISO/IEC 6
    46:1983 standard set.
    520|232 1 24174 1 1|Standard output isn't the same as file 'od_eso_1003'
    520|232 1 24174 1 2|diff of "out.stdout" and "od_eso_1003":
    520|232 1 24174 1 3|*** out.stdout Fri Jan 12 21:45:57 1996
    520|232 1 24174 1 4|--- od_eso_1003 Fri Jan 12 21:45:57 1996
    520|232 1 24174 1 5|***************
    520|232 1 24174 1 6|*** 2,8 ****
    520|232 1 24174 1 7|
    520|232 1 24174 1 8| t h i s i s l i n e t w
    o
    520|232 1 24174 1 12|
    520|232 1 24174 1 13|
    520|232 1 24174 1 14|--- 2,8 ----
    520|232 1 24174 1 15|
    520|232 1 24174 1 16| t h i s i s l i n e t w
    o
    520|232 1 24174 1 20|
    520|232 1 24174 1 21|
    220|232 1 1 21:46:03|FAIL
    410|232 1003 1 21:46:04|IC End

    ------------------end of test output-------------------

    Review Information

    Review Type TSMA Review
    Start Date null
    Completed null
    Status Complete
    Review Recommendation No Resolution Given
    Review Response
    A permanent interpretation is recommended.

    The od -c option is an X/Open extension. We recommend the -c spec
    wording be fully aligned with the POSIX od -t c specification.

    Review Type SA Review
    Start Date null
    Completed null
    Status Complete
    Review Resolution Permanent Interpretation (PIN)
    Review Conclusion
    A Permanent Interpretation is granted.

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