Fix NetBeans launch failure on unix shell for arguments with quotes et al

[sid-srini]

Issue

When NetBeans is launched on *nix shell with arguments that contain special characters like quotes, spaces, $ and backticks, then it may fail or not receive the arguments correctly.

The launcher scripts are:

• java/java.lsp.server/script/bin/nbcode
• platform/o.n.bootstrap/launcher/unix/nbexec

The cause is due to incomplete escaping of the special characters before quoting the argument.
Examples:

• --jdkhome "$HOME/openjdk's jdkhome"
• --jdkhome '/home/user/tools/jdk "23"'
• --jdkhome /c/Program\ Files/Java/jdk
  • EDIT: values with spaces alone is not a problem with the IDE launcher.
• --userdir "/mnt/user's macbook pro/Users/user/Library/Application Support/NetBeans"
• -Dnetbeans.extra.dirs="nb-dev\$old/extras/plugin1:nb-dev\$old/extras/plugin2:ext/My Plugins/quo\"'d"

Further, a discrepancy is created between the argument strings passed on a Windows host (using the launcher exe/dll) and *nix hosts.

Fix

1. Ensure that all arguments are quoted before passing forward to the executable launch.
   • This is implemented similar to other open-source build tools.
   • Example: ant
2. Ensure that the special characters ' " $ ` in the argument are escaped according to the quoting being performed.
3. Consistently use eval with arguments single-quoted and parameter substitution within it being double-quoted.
   • This makes nbexec similar to the nbcode script
4. Updated the unit test for nbexec.

[sid-srini]

@neilcsmith-net - Please review this PR whenever its possible for you, and provide any suggestions for it. Thank you.

[sid-srini]

@neilcsmith-net, @mbien - Please review this PR whenever earliest its possible for you, along with any suggestions for improvement. Thank you.

[sid-srini]

I've rebased the PR against the current master. Please do trigger CI tests and review this PR. Thank you.
cc: @neilcsmith-net, @mbien, @dbalek, @sdedic.

[sid-srini]

I've rebased the PR against the current master. Please do trigger CI tests and review this PR. Thank you.
cc: @neilcsmith-net, @mbien, @dbalek, @sdedic.

[sid-srini]

I've rebased the PR against the current master. Please do trigger CI tests and review this PR. Thank you.
cc: @neilcsmith-net, @mbien, @dbalek, @sdedic.

[singh-akhilesh]

Looks good to me.

[matthiasblaesing]

This seems to work for NetBeans IDE. But what makes me nervous is:

• the problems are not reproducible with the NetBeans IDE with an older master build
• the NetBeans IDE launcher is missing from the launcher enumeration
• the problems are not reproduible with the NetBeans IDE with this applied

So what testing was done with the IDE?

[sid-srini]

Hi @matthiasblaesing. Thanks for taking a look at this. Please find my responses below.

This seems to work for NetBeans IDE. But what makes me nervous is:

• the problems are not reproducible with the NetBeans IDE with an older master build

I do not know which older master build did not have these problems reproducible. I have seen this for releases since the last 2-3 years.

• the NetBeans IDE launcher is missing from the launcher enumeration

The NetBeans IDE launcher nb/ide.launcher/unix/netbeans is essentially invoking the launcher script covered in this PR i.e. platform/o.n.bootstrap/launcher/unix/nbexec.

The IDE launcher script is a wrapper that performs basic parsing and addition of some extra platform-specific options to the command-line for nbexec. The IDE launcher uses eval with '"$@"' that will pass forward the user-input arguments literally.

The IDE launcher also utilizes env variable values defined in the IDE's netbeans.conf file which are populated by the build and mostly do not have such problems. A glitch may occur when the user installs NetBeans in a location like the examples given in the PR description, causing basedir to have such a value. Nonetheless, these are more controlled settings unlike the general user input on the command line.

If you prefer similar changes may be added in the wrapper for the default options read from netbeans.conf.

• the problems are not reproduible with the NetBeans IDE with this applied

So what testing was done with the IDE?

The problems are not reproducible with the NetBeans IDE with this fix applied.

The testing up till now has been done via:

• the unit tests for nbexec
• manual tests for launching the IDE on command-line with example test values like those given in the PR description, as well as with some non-problematic values.

One thing to note is that problematic values with only spaces and not any of the other special characters is handled fine by the IDE launch i.e. nbexec, which used to be a problem with the other launcher that has been removed since NB28.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

[matthiasblaesing]

@sid-srini thanks for your reply. I wanted to ensure that testing was done with the NetBeans IDE. You confirmed that.

I intent to merge this some time next week, so it gets in early in the NB31 cycle and has time to settle should something break.

[mbien]

please rebase before merge. branch is ~8 month old by now.

[matthiasblaesing]

@sid-srini @mbien is right, it makes sense to do a rebase before merging. Could you please do so and update the PR to that state?

[sid-srini]

Thanks @mbien and @matthiasblaesing. I have rebased the branch to the current master which includes the post NB30 sig files etc.

Additional minor changes:

• I have also added an additional unit test for checking -J options handling.
• A couple of lines that were missed in the earlier nbexec changes; specifically setting of netbeans.home property and in look_for_new_clusters(), which would not impact a NetBeans IDE installation location that is currently supported.

Please re-run the CI tests and re-review this PR before proceeding to merge. Thanks a lot.