Bug#390473: grub2: menuentry stanza doesn't accept $ { } in variable substitutions

[Robert Millan]

On Mon, Oct 30, 2006 at 10:21:44AM +0100, Luca Capello wrote:
> > That's because of syntax error.  Both $ and { are reserved
> > characters and must be used consistently.
> 
> I agree on this, but apart from the boot panic the main problem is the
> lack of documentation, either upstream (including the wiki) and in the
> Debian package: nowhere $ and { are described as reserved characters.

Then what is this bug about?  Lack of documentation?

> > AFAICT, upstream doesn't consider this a bug.  If you disagree, can
> > you take this up with them?
> 
> I haven't receive any public answer from upstream and I cannot
> understand why this won't be a bug: grub-install doesn't show any
> error when installing such a config file, resulting in the boot panic,
> which IMHO is a real problem.

grub-install has nothing to do with config files.  It could even work with no
config file at all, and then you'd just have to type the commands by hand.

> I won't close this bug until a clear solution will be taken: this
> could be a (big) warning somewhere about reserved characters
> (primarily upstream, but specifically in the NEWS.Debian or
> README.Debian could be OK, too) or a technical solution which will
> avoid the boot panic.

I don't want to clutter the package documenting bugs.  Bugs should be fixed, not
documented.  If you think this behaviour is incorrect, then _please_ deal with
upstream.  If upstream ignores you, don't put it up on me, because it's not my
fault and I can't help you anyway.  Just be patient and keep trying.

Besides, if you really want to make it easier for GNU/Hurd users to use grub2,
instead of encouraging them to waste their time writing grub.cfg entries by
hand, why don't you help me with the update-grub rewrite?  The new update-grub
already supports GNU/Hurd boot properly, and it's waiting for upstream to
approve it and (hopefuly) merge it in their tree.

-- 
Robert Millan

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