Bug 1065463

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #143874 +++

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.5)
Gecko/20041111 Firefox/1.0

Description of problem:
A %define directive on a comment line still %defines the symbol.  If
the commented line appears after a live %define directive, the
commented definition replaces the live one.

Commented lines should have no effect.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rpm-4.3.2-21

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install the attached foo.spec file in SOURCES.
2. rpmbuild -bp foo.spec
3.
    

Actual Results:  Output echoes "bazz" on screen.

Expected Results:  Output echoes "bar" on screen.

Additional info:

foo.spec file attached below.

Note the lines:

%define foo bar
# %define foo bazz

The latter %define overrides the former, even though it is commented out.

--- Additional comment from Matthew Saltzman on 2004-12-30 11:26:38 EST ---

Build this package (foo-0.0) with "rpmbuild -bp foo.spec".  The output echoes
"bazz" when it should echo "bar".

--- Additional comment from Paul Nasrat on 2004-12-30 11:29:32 EST ---

This is a known limitation of the spec parser, macros are expanded everywhere -
comments, changelog etc. Common packager approaches are to either add a % to
escape or replace the % with the #
eg:

#%%define foo bazz 

or 
#define foo bazz

--- Additional comment from Matthew Saltzman on 2004-12-30 11:55:51 EST ---

OK fine, but this needs to be documented in big red letters in places that
specfile authors are likely to see it (appropriate sections of the HOWTO and 
Maximum RPM, at least).  For anyone used to most common programming languages,
shell languages, makefile syntax, etc., this is totally unexpected behavior.

In the Maximum RPM snapshot
(http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm-snapshot/ch-rpm-inside.html#S1-RPM-INSIDE-COMMENTS)
the following appears:

Comments are a way to make RPM ignore a line in the spec file. The contents of a
comment line are entirely up to the person writing the spec file.

To create a comment, enter an octothorp (#) at the start of the line. Any text
following the comment character will be ignored by RPM. 

The same appears in Appendix E
(http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm-snapshot/ch-rpm-specref.html#S1-RPM-SPECREF-COMMENTS)

I have not encountered any reference to expansion of macros in comments anywhere
I've looked.

--- Additional comment from Paul Nasrat on 2004-12-30 12:01:45 EST ---

For speedy update patches against maximum rpm happily taken and the snapshot
will be updated. CVS details here, feel free to attach here or post to rpm-list:

http://rpm.org/cvs_help/



--- Additional comment from Matthew Saltzman on 2004-12-30 14:08:28 EST ---

OK Will post here or there when I have a chance to write the patches.