Rd2dvi - script (PR#1029)

olefc  writes:

Full_Name: Ole Christensen
Version: 1.3.0
OS: Solaris
Submission from: (NULL) (130.225.48.2)

I have discovered a problem with script Rd2dvi for R-1.3.0 on our
Solaris machines.  When writing R CMD Rd2dvi Name_of_Package, then
things go wrong with the conversion to Latex of the DESCRIPTION file
in the package.

Having discussed the problem with our system administrator, he
constructed a script illustrating the problem (see below: script a,
and output b).  It seems that our Solaris machines makes a further
expansion in the shell scripts than intended ( \\b -> \b ->
<Backspace> ).

We have also tested the script on a SunOS 4.1.2 and a Debian/GNU Linux
2.0.36 machine, where everything worked fine.

...

Thanks for pointing this out.

As newer versions of the autoconf manual point out

	The simple @code{echo} is probably the most surprising source of
	portability troubles.  It is not possible to use @samp{echo}
	portably unless both options and escape sequences are omitted.
	New applications which are not aiming at portability should use
	@samp{printf} instead of @samp{echo}.

	...

	Do not use backslashes in the arguments, as there is no
	consensus on their handling.

The problem is that Solaris builtin echo and /usr/bin/echo by default
interpret `\b' et al as special backslash-escaped sequences.

The solution is not to use echo for producing LaTeX text but here
documents instead.  Will fix.

[There is similar code in doc/manual/Makefile.in, but it does not use
any `recognized' escape sequences ...]

-k
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