[PATCH] gdb/testsuite: work around empty substring bug in expect

Andrew Burgess
2025-08-26T14:35:52Z

There is a bug in expect, see:

https://sourceforge.net/p/expect/patches/26/

which causes empty substring matches from a regexp to instead return
the complete input buffer. To reproduce this bug, try this command:

expect -c 'spawn sh -c "echo -n -e \"abc\""; \
expect -re "(a?)(a)(bc)"; \
puts "\n"; \
for { set i 1 } { $i < 4 } { incr i } { \
puts -nonewline "($i): \""; \
puts -nonewline $expect_out($i,string); \
puts "\"" \
}'

For a working expect the output looks like:

spawn sh -c echo -n -e "abc"
abc

(1): ""
(2): "a"
(3): "bc"

But for a broken expect the output looks like:

spawn sh -c echo -n -e "abc"
abc

(1): "abc"
(2): "a"
(3): "bc"

Notice that (1) is now returning the complete input buffer rather than
the empty string, this is wrong.

This is not the first time this bug has impacted GDB's testsuite,
this commit seems to be working around the same problem:

commit e579b537353cd91cb8fac1eaeb69901d4936766f
Date: Sat Aug 16 20:32:37 2025 +0200

[gdb/testsuite] Fix TUI tests on freebsd

I recently pushed this commit:

commit 3825c972a636852600b47c242826313f4b9963b8
Date: Wed Jun 18 15:02:29 2025 +0100

gdb: allow gdb.Color to work correctly with pagination

Which added gdb.python/py-color-pagination.exp. Bug PR gdb/33321 was
then created as the test was failing on some hosts. Turns out, this
is same expect bug.

The fix presented here is the same as for e579b537353cd91cb8, avoid
using optional regexp substrings at the start of a regexp, and instead
use two separate regexp patterns. With this change in place, the test
now passes on all hosts.

There's no change in what is being tested after this commit.

Bug: https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33321
---
.../gdb.python/py-color-pagination.exp | 36 +++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.python/py-color-pagination.exp b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.python/py-color-pagination.exp
index 3235fffe5cc..e1ca1f1ce75 100644
--- a/gdb/testsuite/gdb.python/py-color-pagination.exp
+++ b/gdb/testsuite/gdb.python/py-color-pagination.exp
@@ -66,18 +66,25 @@ proc test_pagination { type mode } {
exp_continue
}

- -re "^(${::any_color}?)(${::any_color})$::str" {
+ -re "^(${::any_color})(${::any_color})$::str" {
# After a continuation prompt GDB will restore the previous
# color, and then we immediately switch to a new color.
set restored_color $expect_out(1,string)
- if { $restored_color ne ""
- && $restored_color ne $expected_restore_color } {
+ if { $restored_color ne $expected_restore_color } {
set saw_bad_color_handling true
}
set last_color $expect_out(2,string)
exp_continue
}

+ -re "^(${::any_color})$::str" {
+ # This pattern matches printing STR in all cases that are not
+ # immediately after a pagination prompt. In this case there is
+ # a single escape sequence to set the color.
+ set last_color $expect_out(1,string)
+ exp_continue
+ }
+
-re "^\033\\\[${::decimal}m$::str" {
# This catches the case where the color's escape sequence has
# not been converted back into a full style. This indicates
@@ -86,18 +93,25 @@ proc test_pagination { type mode } {
exp_continue
}

- -re "^((?:\033\\\[m)?)$::pagination_prompt$" {
+ -re "^\033\\\[m$::pagination_prompt$" {
# After a pagination prompt we expect GDB to restore the last
# color.
set expected_restore_color $last_color

- # If we didn't see a color reset sequence then the pagination
- # prompt will have been printed in the wrong color, this is a
- # GDB bug.
- set color_reset $expect_out(1,string)
- if { $color_reset eq "" } {
- set saw_bad_color_handling true
- }
+ # Send '\n' to view more output.
+ send_gdb "\n"
+ exp_continue
+ }
+
+ -re "^$::pagination_prompt$" {
+ # After a pagination prompt we expect GDB to restore the last
+ # color.
+ set expected_restore_color $last_color
+
+ # If we didn't see a color reset sequence before the pagination
+ # prompt, then the prompt will have been printed in the wrong
+ # color, this is a GDB bug.
+ set saw_bad_color_handling true

# Send '\n' to view more output.
send_gdb "\n"

base-commit: 3825c972a636852600b47c242826313f4b9963b8
--
2.47.1