[Chicken-janitors] #1001: Should ~ in pathnames be implicit expanded?

[Chicken Trac]

#1001: Should ~ in pathnames be implicit expanded?
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 Reporter:  mario                                |       Owner:       
     Type:  change request                       |      Status:  new  
 Priority:  major                                |   Milestone:  4.9.0
Component:  unknown                              |     Version:  4.8.x
 Keywords:  ##sys#expand-home-path, ~ expansion  |  
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 Some procedures available in Chicken implicitly expand {{{~}}} to the user
 home directory if it is the first character in pathnames.  They also
 expand environment variables if pathnames start with {{{$}}}.

 The expansions are performed by {{{##sys#expand-home-path}}}
 (library.scm).

 Florian Zumbiehl submited a [https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html
 /chicken-hackers/2013-03/msg00062.html patch] to chicken-hackers proposing
 the removal of  {{{##sys#expand-home-path}}}.  It received some
 modifications by other contributors.  The most recent version of that
 patch at the time of this writing is
 [https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/chicken-
 hackers/2013-03/msg00154.html here].

 This change is controversial, since it may break code that rely on the
 implicit expansion of pathnames. On the other hand, implicit expansion of
 pathnames may lead to unexpected behaviors or even security
 vulnerabilities ([https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/chicken-
 hackers/2013-03/msg00137.html examples]).

 Another source of controversy is that some people consider the implicit
 expansion of pathnames as a [https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html
 /chicken-hackers/2013-03/msg00131.html convenience] and other people
 consider it [https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/chicken-
 hackers/2013-03/msg00138.html inconvenient].

 Alternatives to minimize or work around the possible breakage caused by
 the removal of the implicit expansion of pathnames have been proposed
 along the chicken-hackers thread in question.

 It seems that there is a consensus on the removal of the implicit
 expansion of environment variables in pathnames, so this change request is
 to poll whether procedures provided by the Chicken core should implicitly
 expand {{{~}}} in pathnames or not.

 The discussion period is open and will end on 2013-04-11, when the
 official poll will be conducted.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://bugs.call-cc.org/ticket/1001>
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