Ubuntu release 14.04 LTS
gdm 3.10.0.1-0ubuntu3
I just tried to start gdm with "/etc/init.d/gdm start " and got the message:
/etc/init.d/gdm: 79: /etc/init.d/gdm: Syntax error: "fi" unexpected (expecting "}")
I'm aware of service(8) but cjwatson said I should report this as a bug anyway!
Owen
SRU Information:
[Impact]
* Anyone who tries to use the sysv style /etc/init.d/gdm script to control
gdm may get a syntax error which disallows the script from running,
bombing out to the command line with an unfriendly error
* This problem effects vivid, utopic and trusty. Without this fix
backported, the functionality of the sysv style script for controlling
the gdm service is broken under certain circumstances. The resulting
unfriendly error is also unprofessional and gives a feeling of
brokenness to Ubuntu in all three of these releases, including the
ones to be backported to.
* This upload is a series of three patches. The syntax error
results from a single line in each of the debian/gdm.init files which get
installed as the /etc/init.d/gdm shell script. The problem is an extra
unmatched "fi" that results in a syntax error if the corresponding line
is interpreted
[Test Case]
* To test the fix in vivid, type the following commands before and after
the updated package is installed:
cd /etc/init.d
sudo ./gdm
If the script exits with a syntax error before the package with
the fix is installed, you have verified the bug.
If the script exits with a syntax error after the package is installed,
the fix did not work.
If the script does not indicate a syntax error after the package
is installed, the fix worked
To test the fix on utopic, do the identical test as in vivid above
but instead use the following single command to invoke the script:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm
To test the fix on trusty, do the test as in vivid and utopic,
but use the following commands to change directories and invoke
the script:
cd /etc/init.d
sudo ./gdm
sudo ./gdm start
In this case, both times you run the script it should exit with
the syntax error before installing the package and neither time
after installing the package.
[Regression Potential]
* Any scripts which may call this script which happen to mistakenly
rely on it to fail could perhaps behave differently, with unknown
results possible
[Other Info]
* Using or not using sudo before each command may affect the tests
with varying output that may be unexpected. In all cases, however,
if the script bombs on a syntax error happens mentioning a line number
and "fi" the test definitely either verified the bug or definitively
showed the package did not fix the bug (or was not installed correctly).
A situation which arose during the testing is that depending on the
whether the patch is on vivid, utopic or trusty, calling the script
in different ways (fully qualified path vs. changing the current
directory to /etc/init.d and using ./gdm, for instance, or
including or not including the 'start' parameter) causes the
test to behave differently, for instance failing silently or working
depending on how the script is called even with the syntax error present.
This is why there are different command lines for each version of the
patch for testing.
I did some tracing on why this happened, and the reasons seem buried deep
within the trees of scripts called beneath /etc/init.d/gdm and are outside
the scope of this fix and do not invalidate this fix. This fix deals
with a simple top level shell script syntax error that can be successfully
tested for as indicated above.
Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.