Mysterious error message: scenario please

[don at umd5.UUCP]

In article <1903 at tektools.UUCP> jerryp at tektools.TEK.COM (Jerry Peek) writes:
>In article <1369 at umd5> don at umd5 (Chris Sylvain) writes:
>> ...
>> error message in response to a call to system()
>> -- "00: is not an identifier".
>
>I haven't checked into *why* your message is happening, but I can reproduce
>it.  If your environment is trashed (has an environment variable with a bad
>name), you can get the message.  Here's an example from 4.3BSD... the Bourne
>shell never starts:
>
>	Script started on Sat Nov 22 05:49:49 1986
>	$ /bin/csh -f
>	% setenv "FOO bar" trash
>	% sh
>	FOO bar=trash: is not an identifier
>	%

I never touched **envp, honest!
Also, "FOO bar=trash" is not the same as "00" <- read "zero,zero".
I peeked at the sh sources and can see where the "notid" error message
is generated, but I don't know why or how. For me, all it takes is a
plain-vanilla system call like system("printenv") to generate the error
message. Really mysterious.

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