function command_not_found_handle in /etc/bash.bashrc may supress command not found error message

[Herbert Thielen]

Binary package hint: bash

In case a user tries to enter a command name containing white space, e.g.
$ "foo bar"
the system doesn't print an error message. Only the return code is correct (127), but nothing else is printed. This may be confusing.

The function command_not_found_handle(), which is called by bash if the command is not found, is defined in /etc/bash.bashrc and is intended to give a hint which package may contain the command the user wants to run.

But the function definition misses quotes around the program name variable ("$1"), so the white space separates this funny command to more than one word, and the python program seems not to like this.

A simple fix is attached as patch.

[Herbert Thielen (thielen)]

Some examples are shown below. The first one shows the problem - no error message, but correct return code. The second one shows the expected behaviour for a not available command without white space in the command name.

rum:~$ foo\ bar

rum:~$ echo $?
127

rum:~$ foo
No command 'foo' found, did you mean:
 Command 'fio' from package 'fio' (universe)
 Command 'goo' from package 'goo' (universe)
 Command 'fop' from package 'fop' (universe)
 Command 'fox' from package 'objcryst-fox' (universe)
 Command 'xoo' from package 'xoo' (universe)
 Command 'zoo' from package 'zoo' (universe)
foo: command not found

rum:~$ echo $?
127

After applying the patch, the expected behaviour is shown:

rum:~$ "foo bar"
foo bar: command not found

rum:~$ echo $?
127

[Herbert Thielen (thielen)]

I forgot to mention: This was executed on kubuntu 10.10:

rum:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=maverick
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.10"

rum:~$ echo $BASH_VERSION
4.1.5(1)-release

rum:~$ dpkg -l bash
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii bash 4.1-2ubuntu4 The GNU Bourne Again SHell

[Herbert Thielen (thielen)]

I just tested it on ubuntu 11.04 beta with bash 4.2-0ubuntu2; same situation here.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package bash - 4.2-0ubuntu4

---------------
bash (4.2-0ubuntu4) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Apply upstream patches:
    - 009: Fix segfault running `fc -l' two times in succession.
    - 010: Correctly print/reproduce here documents attached to commands
      inside compound commands.
  * Fix parsing of double doublequotes. LP: #780441.
  * /etc/bash.bashrc:
    - Fix quoting issue calling command-not-found. LP: #754859. Closes: #587185.
    - For .hushlogin file for sudo hint. LP: #672496.
  * Don't cache the value of brk between sbrk calls (Samuel Thibault).
    Closes: #614815.
 -- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Wed, 18 May 2011 10:56:41 +0200