[Rd] Inconsistent behavior for the C AP's R_ParseVector() ?

[Laurent Gautier]

Hi again,

Beside R_ParseVector()'s possible inconsistent behavior, R's handling of
zero-length named elements does not seem consistent either:

```
> lst <- list()
> lst[[""]] <- 1
> names(lst)
[1] ""
> list("" = 1)
Error: attempt to use zero-length variable name
```

Should the parser be made to accept as valid what is otherwise possible
when using `[[<` ?


Best,

Laurent



Le sam. 30 nov. 2019 à 17:33, Laurent Gautier <lgautier using gmail.com> a écrit :

> I found the following code comment in `src/main/gram.c`:
>
> ```
>
> /* Memory leak
>
> yyparse(), as generated by bison, allocates extra space for the parser
> stack using malloc(). Unfortunately this means that there is a memory
> leak in case of an R error (long-jump). In principle, we could define
> yyoverflow() to relocate the parser stacks for bison and allocate say on
> the R heap, but yyoverflow() is undocumented and somewhat complicated
> (we would have to replicate some macros from the generated parser here).
> The same problem exists at least in the Rd and LaTeX parsers in tools.
> */
>
> ```
>
> Could this be related to be issue ?
>
> Le sam. 30 nov. 2019 à 14:04, Laurent Gautier <lgautier using gmail.com> a
> écrit :
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> The behavior of
>> ```
>> SEXP R_ParseVector(SEXP, int, ParseStatus *, SEXP);
>> ```
>> defined in `src/include/R_ext/Parse.h` appears to be inconsistent
>> depending on the string to be parsed.
>>
>> Trying to parse a string such as `"list(''=1+"` sets the
>> `ParseStatus` to incomplete parsing error but trying to parse
>> `"list(''=123"` will result in R sending a message to the console (followed but a crash):
>>
>> ```
>> R[write to console]: Error: attempt to use zero-length variable nameR[write to console]: Fatal error: unable to initialize the JIT*** stack smashing detected ***: <unknown> terminated
>> ```
>>
>> Is there a reason for the difference in behavior, and is there a workaround ?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> Laurent
>>
>>

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