bash-completion on ssh hostname adds bad function, causes syntax errors

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

Initially this works:

~$ /opt/local/bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
~$ /bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
~$ /bin/sh -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar

then I use ssh and I hit TAB to autocomplete the host name:

~$ ssh foo.example.com 
...
[me@foo ~]$ exit
logout
Connection to foo.example.com closed.

There when I run the same tests again I get an error

~$ /opt/local/bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
/opt/local/bin/bash: _scp: line 28: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/opt/local/bin/bash: _scp: line 28: ` !(*:*)/* | [.~]*)'
/opt/local/bin/bash: error importing function definition for `_scp'
foobar
~$ /bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
/bin/bash: _scp: line 28: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/bin/bash: _scp: line 28: ` !(*:*)/* | [.~]*)'
/bin/bash: error importing function definition for `_scp'
foobar
~$ /bin/sh -c "/bin/echo foobar"
/bin/sh: _scp: line 28: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/bin/sh: _scp: line 28: ` !(*:*)/* | [.~]*)'
/bin/sh: error importing function definition for `_scp'
foobar

Removing the function definition clears the error

~$ unset -f _scp
~$ /opt/local/bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
~$ /bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
~$ /bin/sh -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar

additional info

~$ uname -srvpoi
Darwin 13.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.3.0: Tue Jun  3 21:27:35 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2422.110.17~1/RELEASE_X86_64 i386 MacBookPro8,2 Darwin
~$ type -all bash; echo $BASH_VERSION; bash -version | grep version.*release
bash is /opt/local/bin/bash
bash is /bin/bash
4.3.18(1)-release
GNU bash, version 4.3.18(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin13.2.0)
~$ port installed | grep -iE 'bash|complet|ssh|ssl'
  bash @4.3.18_0 (active)
  bash-completion @2.1_8 (active)
  curl @7.37.1_0+ssl (active)
  openssl @1.0.1h_0 (active)
  p5.16-io-socket-ssl @1.981.0_0 (active)
  p5.16-net-smtp-ssl @1.10.0_0 (active)
  p5.16-net-ssleay @1.580.0_0 (active)
  wget @1.15_1+ssl (active)
  wireshark @1.10.7_2+adns+geoip+gnutls+ipv6+libgcrypt+libsmi+lua+rtp+ssl+x11 (active)

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

Cc Me!

[mf2k (Frank Schima)]

In the future, please Cc the port maintainers (port info --maintainers bash-completion). As reporter, you do not need to Cc yourself.

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

There seems to be a similar error for RPM

/bin/sh: _rpm: line 93: syntax error in conditional expression: unexpected token `('
/bin/sh: _rpm: line 93: syntax error near `-@(*'
/bin/sh: _rpm: line 93: ` if [[ ${words[@]} == *\ -@(*([^ -])f|-file )* ]]; then'
/bin/sh: error importing function definition for `_rpm'

[raimue (Rainer Müller)]

Somehow I can't reproduce this problem. I tried tab completion of hostnames for ssh with both a list presented and no list, but the test commands produced the same output as before and no error messages. I run bash as my login shell, but also testing in a newly spawned bash I can't reproduce it.

$ type _scp
-bash: type: _scp: not found
$ ssh foo.example.org<Tab>
...
raimue@foo $ logout
Connection to foo.example.org closed.
$ type -t _scp
function
$ /opt/local/bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
$ /bin/bash -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
$ /bin/sh -c "/bin/echo foobar"
foobar
$

$ port -q installed bash* and active
  bash @4.3.18_0 (active)
  bash-completion-devel @2.1_7 (active)

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

/opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/ssh

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

It's still a problem for me. I noticed you are using bash-completion-devel @2.1_7 while I am using bash-completion @2.1_8. I don't know if that could be the difference. Maybe compare to my _scp definition. I've attached the file that defines it and also pinter the definition from my bash shell.

$ find /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions -xtype f | xargs -r grep -l '_scp()' | xargs -r ls -l
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin     3 Apr  8 04:27 /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/autossh -> ssh
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin     3 Apr  8 04:27 /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/scp -> ssh
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin     3 Apr  8 04:27 /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/sftp -> ssh
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin     3 Apr  8 04:27 /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/slogin -> ssh
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 11766 Apr  8 04:27 /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/ssh
$ type _scp
_scp is a function
_scp () 
{ 
    local cur prev words cword;
    _init_completion -n : || return;
    local configfile prefix;
    _ssh_suboption_check && { 
        COMPREPLY=("${COMPREPLY[@]/%/ }");
        return 0
    };
    case $prev in 
        -l | -P)
            return 0
        ;;
        -F | -i | -S)
            _filedir;
            compopt +o nospace;
            return 0
        ;;
        -c)
            _ssh_ciphers;
            COMPREPLY=("${COMPREPLY[@]/%/ }");
            return 0
        ;;
        -o)
            _ssh_options;
            return 0
        ;;
    esac;
    _expand || return 0;
    case $cur in 
        !(*:*)/* | [.~]*)

        ;;
        *:*)
            _scp_remote_files;
            return 0
        ;;
    esac;
    if [[ "$cur" == -F* ]]; then
        cur=${cur#-F};
        prefix=-F;
    else
        set -- "${words[@]}";
        while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
            if [[ $1 == -F* ]]; then
                if [[ ${#1} -gt 2 ]]; then
                    configfile="$(dequote "${1:2}")";
                else
                    shift;
                    [[ -n $1 ]] && configfile="$(dequote "$1")";
                fi;
                break;
            fi;
            shift;
        done;
        case $cur in 
            -*)
                COMPREPLY=($( compgen -W '$( _parse_usage "${words[0]}" )'                     -- "$cur" ));
                COMPREPLY=("${COMPREPLY[@]/%/ }");
                return 0
            ;;
            */* | [.~]*)

            ;;
            *)
                _known_hosts_real -c -a -F "$configfile" "$cur"
            ;;
        esac;
    fi;
    _scp_local_files "$prefix";
    return 0
}

[raimue (Rainer Müller)]

bash-completion and bash-completion-devel are identical at the moment as there is no pre-release available. I checked that my /opt/local/share/bash-completion/completions/ssh matches the file attached by you. Also the definition for _scp is exactly the same in my shell.

From your command above, do you have /opt/local/libexec/gnubin in your PATH? The options are not accepted that way by /usr/bin/xargs or /usr/bin/find. However, even when I add that to the front of my PATH I still can't reproduce the problem.

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

yes

~$ echo $PATH
/Users/danlip/bin:/opt/appmind/bin:/opt/java7/bin:/opt/local/libexec/gnubin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin
~$ type -all xargs
xargs is /opt/local/libexec/gnubin/xargs
xargs is /usr/bin/xargs
~$ type -all find
find is /opt/local/libexec/gnubin/find
find is /usr/bin/find

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

also I tried setting my PATH to just "/usr/bin" and I still see the error.

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

Those fancy-pants patterns require extglob to be enabled, which bash-completion does automatically when it’s sourced. So something is disabling it. Can you try this immediately after reproducing your problem?

$ bash -c 'shopt -s extglob && /bin/echo foobar'

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

unfortunately that doesn't help (it was already set)

$ shopt extglob
extglob        	on
~$ bash -c 'shopt -s extglob && /bin/echo foobar'
bash: _scp: line 28: syntax error near unexpected token `('
bash: _scp: line 28: ` !(*:*)/* | [.~]*)'
bash: error importing function definition for `_scp'
foobar

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

On second thought, that command doesn’t test anything; it’s not echo that’s having a problem.

I think I know what’s going on. Which startup script do you source bash-completion from?

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

I have the following in ~/.bash_profile

if [ -f /opt/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh ]; then
    source /opt/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh
fi

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

It looks like the child shells you’re running are inheriting the parent’s bash-completion functions, but they’re not sourcing bash-completion.sh itself, which handles necessary setup like enabling extglob. (Child shells do not inherit their parents’ options, so all the bash invocations you’ve been testing with have extglob off.)

At a quick glance, it doesn’t look like bash-completion exports its functions to the environment, so I don’t know why your functions are being inherited by child shells. You could try temporarily commenting out everything in your startup scripts except for the bash-completion bit and seeing whether that produces any results.

[Daniel.Lipofsky@…]

Solved: my ~/.bash_profile was sourcing something that was sourcing something that was calling "set -a". It seemed to need it, but I was able to add a "set +a" at the end of my ~/.bash_profile to reverse it, which solved the problem.

[larryv (Lawrence Velázquez)]

Great!