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Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 13:31:14 +0400
From: Aleksey Cherepanov <aleksey.4erepanov@...il.com>
To: john-users@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: file name expansion for --wordlist= and file name
 starting with ~

On Mon, May 07, 2012 at 10:42:53AM +0200, Frank Dittrich wrote:
> On 05/07/2012 10:02 AM, Aleksey Cherepanov wrote:
> > On Sun, May 06, 2012 at 02:52:47PM -0600, Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
> >> On 6 May 2012 13:59, Frank Dittrich <frank_dittrich@...mail.com> wrote:
> >>> did anybody else of you notice that for --wordlist=filename, even bash
> >>> auto-completion for file names starting with ~/ or ~user works, but john
> >>> fails to recognize e.g. --wordlist=~/test.txt?
> > 
> > It does not work for me too.
> > 
> > $ bash --version
> > GNU bash, version 4.2.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
> > ...
> > $ apt-cache show john
> > Package: john
> > Version: 1.7.8-1
> > ...
> > Filename: pool/main/j/john/john_1.7.8-1_amd64.deb
> 
> $ bash --version
> GNU bash, version 4.2.24(1)-release (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
> 
> The john version is irrelevant, since this seems to be a bash issue.
> (That's why it might be off topic here, but since I started the thread,
> I'd like to add some more findings.)

It seems there are two problems: with bash and with john. I think john has
problem too because Stephen said that expansion occurs for him but we know
that bash does not expand. Hence the question why does one john expand ~ while
others don't? I guess it could depend on library that parses arguments and
options.

> > I do not think that shell should expand this. I think it should expand ~ only
> > at the begin of argument:
> 
> Yes, the bash documentation suggests the same.
> But then, why is it expanding such filenames in GNU options (starting
> with --, like --wordlist=) and even in normal option?

Bash itself does not need (and should not) know meaning of arguments and
options of programs. But auto-completion is the other thing: to be more
comfortable it should know meaning of arguments to complete them right. But we
see that it does not do its job well for some versions/builds of john. It is
the second problem. Maybe completion's developers tested their completions on
the version of john that expands ~ itself. Other approach is to expand it on
the cmd line in-place (like your bash do for vim).

Regards,
Aleksey Cherepanov

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