sed bug precludes use of a or i in Makefile

[Dan Jacobson]

Gentlemen, it has been pointed out that gnu sed has a bug.

It was supposedly crossposted here but no... 

[sorry I left the Chinese in from my screen.  for no chinese perhaps hit:]
http://groups.google.com/groups?frame=right&th=8523db0a2b3ec04e&seekm=n6k7xjpvjw.fsf%40ogion.it.jyu.fi

                                                      Message 1 in thread

   寄件者：[1]Dan Jacobson (address@hidden)
   主旨：how to use sed's a or i in a Makefile?
   新聞群組：[3]comp.unix.shell

                                                [4]View this article only

   日期：2001-10-23 16:28:56 PST

Is it really possible to use
sed '3a\
hello!'
in a Makefile?
--
[5]http://www.geocities.com/jidanni Tel+886-4-25854780

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                                                      Message 2 in thread

   寄件者：[7]David Masterson (address@hidden)
   主旨：Re: how to use sed's a or i in a Makefile?
   新聞群組：[9]comp.unix.shell

                                               [10]View this article only

   日期：2001-10-23 17:32:45 PST

>>>>> Dan Jacobson writes:
> Is it really possible to use
> sed '3a\
> hello!'
> in a Makefile?

Yes -- if you get the number of backslashes correct.

--
David Masterson                dmaster AT synopsys DOT com
Sr. R&D Engineer               Synopsys, Inc.
Software Engineering           Sunnyvale, CA

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                                                      Message 3 in thread

   寄件者：[12]Dan Jacobson (address@hidden)
   主旨：Re: how to use sed's a or i in a Makefile?
   新聞群組：[14]comp.unix.shell

                                               [15]View this article only

   日期：2001-10-25 08:01:30 PST

Dan> Is it really possible to use
Dan> sed '3a\
Dan> hello!'
Dan> in a Makefile?

Dave> Yes -- if you get the number of backslashes correct.

With 1 backslash:

seq 1 4|sed '2a\
iiii'
sed: -e expression #1, char 4: Extra characters after command
make: *** [pa] Error 1

With 2 backslashes:

Makefile:3: *** missing separator.  Stop.

With 3 backslashes:

seq 1 4|sed '2a\\\
iiii'
sed: -e expression #1, char 4: Extra characters after command
make: *** [pa] Error 1

With 4 backslashes:

Makefile:3: *** missing separator.  Stop.

With 5 backslashes:

seq 1 4|sed '2a\\\\\
iiii'
sed: -e expression #1, char 4: Extra characters after command
make: *** [pa] Error 1

and 0 backslashes also fails... so, how did you get the number of
backslashes correct please?
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[16]http://www.geocities.com/jidanni/ Tel+886-4-25854780 ?n??￥§

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                                                      Message 4 in thread

   address@hidden (address@hidden)
   主旨：Re: how to use sed's a or i in a Makefile?
   新聞群組：[20]comp.unix.shell, gnu.utils.bugs

                                               [21]View this article only

   日期：2001-10-25 09:17:49 PST

Dan Jacobson <address@hidden> writes:

> With 1 backslash:
>
> seq 1 4|sed '2a\
> iiii'
> sed: -e expression #1, char 4: Extra characters after command
> make: *** [pa] Error 1

That is interesting. In an HP-UX 11i box I find that it works just
fine with a single backslash using HP's make, but breaks as you
describe with Gnu make. (No difference between HP sed and Gnu sed.)

Looks like a bug in Gnu sed to me.

--
Tapani Tarvainen

-----
GNU sed version 3.02
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http://www.geocities.com/jidanni Tel+886-4-25854780