Question

This is a bug report. Sorry if this is not the right place for bug reports. (See SupportQuestionsAndBugReportsAreIntermiscible.)

Here is my twiki server/client configuratiion information.

• TWiki version: (TWiki version: 01 Feb 2003)
• Perl version: 5.6.1
• Web server & version: Apache
• Server OS: SunOS? + Linux
• Web browser & version: Internet Explorer 6.0
• Client OS: Windows XP

However, I have also demonstrated this problem (bug) on twiki.org. In fact, I will re-demonstrate it here.

Create a non-wiki-word link that contains multiple spaces and hyphens, such as the following: This - is - a - non - wiki - word - link - with - spaces - and - hyphens

At first it appears okay. You can click on it and edit it.

But then you notice that, while the original appeared as: This - is - a - non - wiki - word - link - with - spaces - and - hyphens?

the edit window displays the page name as: This -Is -A -Non -Wiki -Word -Link -With -Spaces -And -Hyphens

I.e. it looks to have done s/- /-/g but not s/ -/-/g, or its moral equivalent.

Before you can save it, you will get an error, which I have cut and pasted below.

  Topic save error 
  During save of file Support.This -Is -A -Non -Wiki -Word -Link -With -Spaces -And -Hyphens an error was found  by the version control system. Please notify your TWiki administrator. 
  /usr/bin/ci -q -l -m'none' -t-none -w'AndyGlew' /home/groups/t/tw/twiki/p/data/Support/This -Is -A -Non -Wiki -  Word -Link -With -Spaces -And -Hyphens.txt 2>&1
  ci: /home/groups/t/tw/twiki/p/data/Support/This: No such file or directory
  ci: -Is option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -A option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -Non option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -Wiki option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -Word option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -Link option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -With option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -Spaces option is ignored after pathnames
  ci: -And option is ignored after pathnameS
  ci: -Hyphens.txt option is ignored after pathnames

  Go back in your browser and save your changes locally

Obviously, the above occurs because the filename is being passed through to RCS unqouted - something like system("ci $filename") instead of system("ci '$filename'") (or, better: system("ci " . quotify($filename) ) which is what I had to do when I encountered the same problems with PerlSQL.)

Or, even better, just call exec...

Interestingly, after the first attempt to create the link that gave an error, the link appears normal, can be read, etc.

I suspect that what is happening is that TWiki saves the *.txt file correctly, albeit with lots of blanks; but all attempts to apply RCS to the file fail because of the unquoted blanks.

Subsequent attempts to edit the file with a lot of hypens and blanks get the same error message.

On my system, at least, the filename will appear in the twiki/Web pages, with some, but not all, of the blanks removed.

My guess is that there are two bugs here:

(1) the "name canonicalization code" uses regexps that are not quite powerful enough.

(2) names used to build commands passed to the system are not being fully quoted.

-- AndyGlew - 20 May 2003

Answer

This is a known bug, TopicSaveErrorWithTopicsContainingSpace

-- PeterThoeny - 27 Jul 2003