55293 – When using a backslash (\) to escape a percent-sign (%), vixie cron passes the escape character to the command

Bug 55293 - When using a backslash (\) to escape a percent-sign (%), vixie cron passes the escape character to the command

Summary: When using a backslash (\) to escape a percent-sign (%), vixie cron passes th...

Status:	RESOLVED FIXED

Alias:	None

Product:	Gentoo Linux
Classification:	Unclassified
Component:	[OLD] Core system (show other bugs)
Hardware:	All Linux

Importance:	High normal (vote)
Assignee:	Cron Team

URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:

Depends on:
Blocks:

Reported:	2004-06-26 18:12 UTC by Eric Pretorious
Modified:	2004-10-08 07:56 UTC (History)
CC List:	0 users

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Package list:
Runtime testing required:	---

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Description Eric Pretorious 2004-06-26 18:12:00 UTC

When using a backslash (\) to escape a percent-sign (%) in a command, vixie cron passes the escape character to the command along with the percent-sign.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. crontab -e
2. create command:
   -s "Message from `hostname` (`date '+\%A, \%B \%d \%Y'`)" admin@leaguehost.net
3. exit
4. wait
Actual Results:  
E-mail subject: 
Message from home (\Saturday, \June \26 \2004) 

Expected Results:  
E-mail subject: 
Message from home (Saturday, June 26 2004)

Comment 1 Eric Pretorious 2004-06-26 18:18:17 UTC

Step #2 *should* read:
2. create command:
   0 * * * * /bin/mailx -s "Message from `hostname` (`date '+\%A, \%B \%d \%Y'`)" admin@leaguehost.net

Comment 2 Ciaran McCreesh 2004-06-27 23:52:26 UTC

This appears to be a feature... AFAICS, vixie-cron only replaces % with a newline when it's not inside a quoted string. When you're using "" or '' the \ is unnecessary.

Comment 3 Aaron Walker (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2004-10-08 07:56:28 UTC

vixie-cron 4.1 seems to handle this better.