#49501: Spaces and Backslashes in Group Names ------------------------+-------------------------------- Reporter: citibob@… | Owner: macports-tickets@… Type: defect | Status: reopened Priority: Low | Milestone: Component: base | Version: 2.3.4 Resolution: | Keywords: Port: | ------------------------+-------------------------------- Changes (by citibob@…): * status: closed => reopened * resolution: invalid => Comment: I'm not going to dispute the logic of the above reply, and I agree 100% that spaces and backslashes in filenames are a BAD IDEA. However, we are stuck with them for all practical purposes. This computer network is at a large, well-known Federal agency --- almost certainly it's a Windows network at its core. The main job of IT is to make sure that people can run MS Office on their MS Desktops, and to deny root access to as many users as possible. Getting the latest GCC and boost running under MacPorts is NOT their job. You can guess how far I got when I submitted a ticket for this problem to them, asking them to fix the group names --- that's right, I didn't even get a reply. There is often a difference between standard specs and facts on the ground. Spaces and backslashes are de facto legal in Mac group names, regardless of what the Open Group spec says. Asking Apple to make their system Open Group compliant in this regard (by rejecting illegal group names) will likely be as successful as my above efforts with our large Federal Agency IT department. Therefore, we are stuck with these crazy group names, and MacPorts is the only viable place where the issue can be resolved. There seem to be two ways forward: 1. Fix the issue, even thought it isn't really the "fault" of MacPorts. There are plenty of cases where software package A has to create a workaround for a bug in software package B. 2. Decide that non-root MacPorts is not supported on the Macs in our large Federal agency because our systems don't (quite) conform to Open Group standards. This won't stop us from using it, because I've already created a workaround for the problem --- one that I would publish and share with others who also need to run MacPorts. But it would seem better if we could get this issue fixed the "right" way, rather than relying on my hackish post-configure Python script to do the job. -- Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/49501#comment:2> MacPorts <https://www.macports.org/> Ports system for OS X