Bug 3233 – rpm-3.0.1 macro name restriction is ridiculous

Bug 3233 - rpm-3.0.1 macro name restriction is ridiculous

Summary:	rpm-3.0.1 macro name restriction is ridiculous

Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX

Aliases:	None

Product:	Red Hat Linux
Classification:	Retired
Component:	rpm (Show other bugs)
Sub Component:
Version:	6.0
Hardware:	All Linux

Priority	medium Severity medium
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Assigned To:	Jay Turner
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Reported:	1999-06-03 05:34 EDT by benedict
Modified:	2015-01-07 18:37 EST (History)
CC List:	1 user (show)

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Fixed In Version:
Doc Type:	Bug Fix
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Last Closed:	1999-06-03 06:20:07 EDT
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Description benedict 1999-06-03 05:34:45 EDT

In lib/macro.c:450 I read:

	/* Names must start with alphabetic or _ and be at least 3
chars */

Now, this is ridiculous - I used to do

%define CC gcc
[...snip...]
%define EXTRA_BUILD     CC='%{CC} -g' CFLAGS='blabla'

which is no longer legal ...  And the error message doesn't
give any hint as to why.

Comment 1 Jeff Johnson 1999-06-03 06:20:59 EDT

One and two character macro names are reserved for the macro
implementation itself. Performing the check on length rather
than on a reserved keyword table permits a robust implementation
for both forward and backward compatibility with different versions
of rpm.

Do you have specific suggestions and/or patches for improved error
messages? Please reopen this bug if so.

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