documentation of problem with slashes on Tru64 5.1 /bin/sh

[Paul Eggert]

I installed this into the Autoconf manual:

2004-04-20  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * doc/autoconf.texi (Slashes): New section, to document a problem
        reported by Jim Meyering in:
        http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2004-02/msg00060.html

Index: doc/autoconf.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/autoconf/autoconf/doc/autoconf.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.808
diff -p -u -r1.808 autoconf.texi
--- doc/autoconf.texi   30 Mar 2004 07:55:25 -0000      1.808
+++ doc/autoconf.texi   20 Apr 2004 20:03:56 -0000
@@ -9269,6 +9269,7 @@ There are other sources of documentation
 * Shell Substitutions::         Variable and command expansions
 * Assignments::                 Varying side effects of assignments
 * Parentheses::                 Parentheses in shell scripts
+* Slashes::                     Slashes in shell scripts
 * Special Shell Variables::     Variables you should not change
 * Limitations of Builtins::     Portable use of not so portable /bin/sh
 * Limitations of Usual Tools::  Portable use of portable tools
@@ -10036,6 +10037,29 @@ esac
 @noindent
 but the @code{(} in this example is not portable to many older Bourne
 shell implementations.  It can be omitted safely.
+
address@hidden Slashes
address@hidden Slashes in Shell Scripts
address@hidden Shell slashes
+
+Unpatched Tru64 5.1 @command{sh} omits the last slash of command-line
+arguments that contain two trailing slashes:
+
address@hidden
+$ echo / // /// //// .// //.
+/ / // /// ./ //.
+$ x=//
+$ eval "echo \$x"
+/
+$ set -x
+$ echo abc | tr -t ab //
++ echo abc
++ tr -t ab /
+/bc
address@hidden example
+
+However, our understanding is that patches are available, so perhaps
+it's not worth worrying about working around this horrendous bug.
 
 @node Special Shell Variables
 @section Special Shell Variables