Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 18:54:22 -0500 From: Dan Nelson <dnelson@allantgroup.com> To: Raphael Marmier <raphael@computer-rental.ch> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: can't set a variable with a dash in its name!! Message-ID: <20030427235420.GC22259@dan.emsphone.com> In-Reply-To: <B4D3860B-7907-11D7-A8A8-000393D67E4A@computer-rental.ch> References: <B4D3860B-7907-11D7-A8A8-000393D67E4A@computer-rental.ch>
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In the last episode (Apr 28), Raphael Marmier said: > On a freshly installed 4.8, while trying to install the mail/imp3 > port, I realised that it was impossible to define the following > variable, either in tcsh or sh: > > re# setenv WITH_COURIER-IMAP > setenv: Syntax Error. > re# setenv WITH_COURIERIMAP > re# > > re# sh > # export WITH_COURIER-IMAP > export: WITH_COURIER-IMAP: bad variable name > # export WITH_COURIERIMAP > # > > I just tried on 4.6.2 and it works, as well as MacOSX. Try "make WITH_COURIER-IMAP=yes", or "make -DWITH_COURIER-IMAP", or edit the port Makefile or /etc/make.conf and set "WITH_COURIER-IMAP=yes" in there. Basically, that's not a valid shell variable, so you have to set it from within make. Posix says: Environment variable names used by the utilities in the Shell and Utilities volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 consist solely of uppercase letters, digits, and the '_' (underscore) from the characters defined in Portable Character Set and do not begin with a digit. Other characters may be permitted by an implementation; applications shall tolerate the presence of such names. The primary problem with the dash is that /bin/sh uses that in variable expansion: ${parameter:-word} Use Default Values. If parameter is unset or null, the expansion of word is substituted; otherwise, the value of parameter is substituted. In the parameter expansions shown previously, use of the colon in the format results in a test for a parameter that is unset or null; omission of the colon results in a test for aparameter that is only unset. -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com
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