starting xterm from tcsh, gives error message: missing }.

[Bengt Svensson]

Thanks Michael for the answer, you were correct.
It was a problem with spaces in the PATH. It is the script 
/etc/profile.d/00xorg-x11-base.csh that does not handle the space. I 
verified this by removing the part of the PAT that had the space in it. 
The script is attached here in its original form. Hopefully someone who is 
better than me at csh scripting can find a solution for future versions 
of cygwin.

Bengt Svensson


$ more 00xorg-x11-base.csh
# The script name starts with 00 to ensure that it is executed before any
# other scripts because one of them may need to know where X is to run
# properly.

# Check if the PATH variable is empty or not
if ( $?PATH ) then
   # PATH is not empty

   # Check if path is already in PATH
   eval "/bin/echo ${PATH} | /bin/grep -q /usr/X11R6/bin"
   if ( $status ) then
     # Path is not already in PATH, prepend it to PATH
     setenv PATH "/usr/X11R6/bin:${PATH}"
   endif
else
   # PATH is empty
   setenv PATH "/usr/X11R6/bin"
endif



> On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 19:21 -0500, Bengt Svensson wrote:
> > I am using tcsh in cygwin and every time I start a new xterm from an existing
> > xterm/tcsh window I get the error message 'missing }.'
> > I recently updated my cygwin so everything should be current. But see attached
> > cygcheck -s -v -r output.
>
> You haven't given enough context in that script to determine why that
> line was problematic and I don't have a Cygwin install in front of me,
> so I can't check.
> 
> To me that line looks fine as it was, however the purpose of the eval
> was not obvious.  I think that statement would be better without the
> eval at all.
> 
> I notice that one directory in your PATH contains a space (c:\Program
> Files\Common Files\MDL Shared\ISIS).  If you examine your output from
> cygcheck you will see that something weird is happening.
> 
> My guess is that at least one script in profile.d isn't handling
> directories with spaces properly.  They really should be rewritten to
> use the $path variable instead ($path is an array, $PATH is a scalar) or
> to explicitly set IFS and use proper quoting.
> 
> -- 
> Michael Wardle <michael@endbracket.net>