Bug 57280

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User-Agent: Mozilla/4.78 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.13 i686)

Description of problem:
I just upgraded one of my systems
from Red Hat 7.1 to 7.2 and suddenly all my automake-generated
Makefile's stopped working.  The problem can be easily exemplified
as follows:

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 2.05.8(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
$ for k in ; do echo flip; done
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
$

On a Red Hat 7.1 system I have, instead,

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 2.04.21(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
Copyright 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
$ for k in ; do echo flip; done
$

i.e., the loop body is executed zero times.
According to the bash FAQ available at
ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/bash/FAQ and especially question

  E7) What about empty for loops in Makefiles?

whose answer says, among other things,

  In versions of bash before bash-2.05a, this was a syntax error.  If the
  reserved word `in' was present, a word must follow it before the
semicolon
  or newline.  The language in the manual page referring to the list of
words
  being empty referred to the list after it is expanded.  These versions of
  bash required that there be at least one word following the `in' when the
  construct was parsed.

  ...

  The latest drafts of the updated POSIX standard have changed this:  the
  word list is no longer required.  Bash versions 2.05a and later accept
  the new syntax.

This, however, does not explain why version "2.04.21(1)-release" 
did not exhibit the problem.

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


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. for k in ; do echo flip; done
2.
3.
	

Actual Results:  bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'


Expected Results:  No error should have been given and the loop body should
be executed zero times.


Additional info: