Bug in ssmtp-config, and a general note about configuration interview scripts

John Hardin johnh@aproposretail.com
Thu Aug 19 15:54:00 GMT 2004


All:

Just ran across a bug in ssmtp-config that brings up an issue in
build-a-config-file interview scripts in general:

If the user makes an error typing in a config setting, and (naturally
enough) hits the backspace key to fix it, ssmtp-config (and probably
many other similar scripts as well) will embed a literal backspace in
the configuration setting - in other words, they're using raw input
rather than cooked.

The bug is using "read VARNAME" to accept input from the user.

I would like to suggest to all who are writing interview scripts that
they should use "read -e VARNAME" instead of "read VARNAME" to get data
from the user. "read -e" uses the readline library which, among other
things, properly handles backspaces.

--
John Hardin  KA7OHZ                           <johnh@aproposretail.com>
Internal Systems Administrator                    voice: (425) 672-1304
Apropos Retail Management Systems, Inc.             fax: (425) 672-0192
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