bash-3.2 breaks mc (echo -e '\137')

[H . Koenig]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: amd64-linux
OS: suse90
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='amd64-linux' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='suse90' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='unknown' 
-DLOCALEDIR='/scr/os2-suse90/koenig/bash-3.2.1-1/PREINSTALL//usr/local//share/locale'
 -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib   -O2 
-D_LARGE_FILES -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64
uname output: Linux atuin 2.6.16.21-0.25-smp #1 SMP Tue Sep 19 07:26:15 UTC 
2006 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 3.2
Patch Level: 1
Release Status: release

Description:

bash versions before 3.2 all allowed 

        echo -e '\137'

to display an underscore, but now in 3.2 _only_ 

        echo -e '\0137'

seems to be valid.  this breaks apps and scripts which (still)
use the old (non-posix) always-three-digit-oactal-number scheme.

one such application is mc (upto 4.6.1).  the following fails 
_only_ with bash-3.2 so far:

        mkdir a_b
        cd a_b
        mc

mc can't "cd" to $CWD because of the underscore in "a_b"
which roughly gets translated into something like

        echo -e a\\137b | bash-running-on-pty

which now fails.


please tell me that this is just a bug in decent bash which will be fixed,
and not yet another braindaed posix compatibility which breaks scripts
which have been working really for decades!

I know that using /bin/sh will work around this new habit, but IMHO that's
not an option in quite some use cases (e.g. login shells;-))



Harald
-- 
"I hope to die                                      ___       _____
before I *have* to use Microsoft Word.",           0--,|    /OOOOOOO\
Donald E. Knuth, 02-Oct-2001 in Tuebingen.        <_/  /  /OOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                    \  \/OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                      \ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO|//
Harald Koenig                                          \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
science+computing ag                                    //  /     \\  \
koenig@science-computing.de                            ^^^^^       ^^^^^