Debian Bug report logs - #543544
mailutils: 'mail' reporting "input in flex scanner failed"

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jameson Graef Rollins <jrollins@finestructure.net>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: mailutils: 'mail' reporting "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:14:15 +0200

Package: mailutils
Version: 1:2.0+dfsg1-4
Severity: normal

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

I'm experiencing a very strange problem with the 'mail' utility and I
have no idea what it means:

servo:~ 0$ echo foo | /usr/bin/mail -s test jrollins@finestructure.net
input in flex scanner failed
servo:~ 2$ 

What's bizarre, though, is that if it's called as 'mailx' it seems to
work:

servo:~ 2$ echo foo | /usr/bin/mailx -s test jrollins@finestructure.net
servo:~ 0$ readlink -f /usr/bin/mailx
/usr/bin/mail
servo:~ 0$ 

What could possibly be going on here?  I'm at a loss.

Thanks for the help.

jamie.

- -- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (200, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages mailutils depends on:
ii  exim4-daemon-light [ma 4.69-11           lightweight Exim MTA (v4) daemon
ii  guile-1.8-libs         1.8.7+1-1         Main Guile libraries
ii  libc6                  2.9-23            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcomerr2             1.41.3-1          common error description library
ii  libfribidi0            0.10.9-1          Free Implementation of the Unicode
ii  libgcrypt11            1.4.4-3           LGPL Crypto library - runtime libr
ii  libgdbm3               1.8.3-6+b1        GNU dbm database routines (runtime
ii  libgmp3c2              2:4.3.1+dfsg-3    Multiprecision arithmetic library
ii  libgnutls26            2.8.3-1           the GNU TLS library - runtime libr
ii  libgpg-error0          1.6-1             library for common error values an
ii  libgsasl7              1.1-1             GNU SASL library
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2       1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - k
ii  libidn11               1.15-1            GNU Libidn library, implementation
ii  libk5crypto3           1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - C
ii  libkrb5-3              1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries
ii  libldap-2.4-2          2.4.17-1          OpenLDAP libraries
ii  libltdl7               2.2.6a-4          A system independent dlopen wrappe
ii  libmailutils2          1:2.0+dfsg1-4     GNU Mail abstraction library
ii  libmysqlclient15off    5.0.51a-24+lenny1 MySQL database client library
ii  libncurses5            5.7+20090803-1+b1 shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libntlm0               0.3.13-1          NTLM authentication library
ii  libpam0g               1.0.1-10          Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libreadline5           5.2-5             GNU readline and history libraries
ii  libtasn1-3             2.3-1             Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime)
ii  libwrap0               7.6.q-18          Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-15 compression library - runtime

mailutils recommends no packages.

Versions of packages mailutils suggests:
pn  mailutils-mh                  <none>     (no description available)

- -- no debconf information

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Message #10 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>

To: control@bugs.debian.org

Cc: 543544@bugs.debian.org, 543544-subscribe@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: mailutils: 'mail' reporting "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:31:03 -0500

severity 543544 critical
thanks

> servo:~ 0$ echo foo | /usr/bin/mail -s test jrollins@finestructure.net
> input in flex scanner failed

I also have this problem.  It's breaking system scripts that rely on 
/usr/bin/mail, e.g. cron-apt.

I also confirm that running /usr/bin/mailx instead avoids the problem.

Message #21 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>

To: Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>, 543544@bugs.debian.org

Cc: control@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#543544: mailutils: 'mail' reporting "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:57:47 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

severity 543544 important
tags 543544 + unreproducible
thanks

Hi,

On Wed, Dec 09, 2009 at 06:31:03AM -0500, Andrew Schulman wrote:
> > servo:~ 0$ echo foo | /usr/bin/mail -s test jrollins@finestructure.net
> > input in flex scanner failed
> 
> I also have this problem.  It's breaking system scripts that rely on 
> /usr/bin/mail, e.g. cron-apt.
> 
> I also confirm that running /usr/bin/mailx instead avoids the problem.

This is weird. I can't produce this at all, running a more or less up to
date sid system.

Executing exactly the command above (changing the email address, of course)
does send email as expected. A quick grep in the sourcecode reveals that
the problem might be coming from the configuration parser. Can you post
your /etc/mail.rc or ~/.mail.rc files?

Jordi
-- 
Jordi Mallach Pérez  --  Debian developer     http://www.debian.org/
jordi@sindominio.net     jordi@debian.org     http://www.sindominio.net/
GnuPG public key information available at http://oskuro.net/

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #26 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>

To: 543544@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#543544: mailutils: 'mail' reporting "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:16:12 -0500

> > > servo:~ 0$ echo foo | /usr/bin/mail -s test
> > > jrollins@finestructure.net input in flex scanner failed
> >
> > I also have this problem.  It's breaking system scripts that rely on
> > /usr/bin/mail, e.g. cron-apt.
> >
> > I also confirm that running /usr/bin/mailx instead avoids the problem.
> 
> This is weird. I can't produce this at all, running a more or less up to
> date sid system.
> 
> Executing exactly the command above (changing the email address, of
>  course) does send email as expected. A quick grep in the sourcecode
>  reveals that the problem might be coming from the configuration parser.
>  Can you post your /etc/mail.rc or ~/.mail.rc files?

Here's /etc/mail.rc, with comments removed.  I have no .mail.rc.

set prompt="& "
set indentprefix="> "
set screen=20
set askcc
set dot
set save appenddeadletter
set hold
retain from to subject cc reply-to date

Thanks,
Andrew.

Message #31 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>

To: <543544@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: Re: mailutils: 'mail' reporting "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:23:41 -0500

This is a pretty obnoxious bug for me and I'd like to help solve it.  It's
probably something trivial that's causing it.

If you can make a debug package available, I can try it out with gdb to
find the problem.

Thanks,
Andrew.

Message #36 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>

To: 543544@bugs.debian.org

Cc: 543544-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: reproducing "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:50:12 -0400

Hi Jordi--

I just hit debian #543544 ("input in flex scanner failed") myself, and i 
think i can show you how to reproduce it:

 mkdir ~/.mail

According to strace, /usr/bin/mail is trying to read() from ~/.mail, but 
when ~/.mail is a directory, it gets EISDIR, which triggers this error.

I suspect that you don't have a directory at ~/.mail, but both Jameson 
and Andrew probably do in the circumstances that they're seeing this 
behavior.

If /usr/bin/mailx is intended to read different config files than 
/usr/bin/mail, that might explain why the proposed workaround is 
effective too.

hth,

	--dkg

Message #44 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Andrew Schulman <andrex@alumni.utexas.net>

To: 543544@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#543544: reproducing "input in flex scanner failed"

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:21:14 -0400

Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
> Hi Jordi--
> 
> I just hit debian #543544 ("input in flex scanner failed") myself, and i
> think i can show you how to reproduce it:
> 
>  mkdir ~/.mail
> 
> According to strace, /usr/bin/mail is trying to read() from ~/.mail, but
> when ~/.mail is a directory, it gets EISDIR, which triggers this error.
> 
> I suspect that you don't have a directory at ~/.mail, but both Jameson
> and Andrew probably do in the circumstances that they're seeing this
> behavior.

Brilliant!  That's right, I do have a directory ~/.mail.  That's where
we keep our mail stores on my server.

Unfortunately I'm no longer able to test any workarounds for this bug,
since I've uninstalled Debian since it was filed.

Message #51 received at 543544@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>

To: 543544@bugs.debian.org, 543544-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net>

Subject: Fixed upstream

Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:50:24 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

Thanks to Daniel's finding, the bug has been fixed upstream, and I'll be
applying a patch to solve it in 2.1 ASAP.

I'm attaching the patch for completeness.

Thanks for reporting, and for finding what the culprit was!

-- 
Jordi Mallach Pérez  --  Debian developer     http://www.debian.org/
jordi@sindominio.net     jordi@debian.org     http://www.sindominio.net/
GnuPG public key information available at http://oskuro.net/

[543544.patch (text/x-diff, attachment)]

Message #59 received at 543544-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>

To: 543544-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#543544: fixed in mailutils 1:2.1+dfsg1-6

Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:53:43 +0000

Source: mailutils
Source-Version: 1:2.1+dfsg1-6

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
mailutils, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

libmailutils-dev_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/libmailutils-dev_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
libmailutils2_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/libmailutils2_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
mailutils-comsatd_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils-comsatd_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
mailutils-guile_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils-guile_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
mailutils-imap4d_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils-imap4d_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
mailutils-mh_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils-mh_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
mailutils-pop3d_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils-pop3d_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6.debian.tar.gz
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6.debian.tar.gz
mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6.dsc
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6.dsc
mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
python-mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb
  to main/m/mailutils/python-mailutils_2.1+dfsg1-6_amd64.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 543544@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org> (supplier of updated mailutils package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.8
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:11:38 +0200
Source: mailutils
Binary: libmailutils2 libmailutils-dev mailutils mailutils-imap4d mailutils-pop3d mailutils-comsatd mailutils-guile mailutils-mh python-mailutils
Architecture: source amd64
Version: 1:2.1+dfsg1-6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>
Changed-By: Jordi Mallach <jordi@debian.org>
Description: 
 libmailutils-dev - Development files for GNU mailutils
 libmailutils2 - GNU Mail abstraction library
 mailutils  - GNU mailutils utilities for handling mail
 mailutils-comsatd - GNU mailutils-based comsatd daemon
 mailutils-guile - GNU mailutils Guile interpreter and modules
 mailutils-imap4d - GNU mailutils-based IMAP4 Daemon
 mailutils-mh - GNU mailutils-based MH utilities
 mailutils-pop3d - GNU mailutils-based POP3 Daemon
 python-mailutils - GNU Mail abstraction library (Python interface)
Closes: 543544 577738
Changes: 
 mailutils (1:2.1+dfsg1-6) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Follow Steve Langasek's suggestion in #555495 and make default-mta the
     preferred mail-transport-agent alternative, instead of exim4.
   * Add mailbox_lexer_parse_regular_files.diff, stolen from Git, to make
     mail work when ~/.mail exists as a directory (thanks Daniel Kahn Gillmor;
     closes: #543544).
   * Install mail as mail.mailutils and register alternatives for
     /usr/bin/mail, so the binary can co-exist with the already present
     alternative provided by bsd-mailx and heirloom-mailx (closes: #577738).
   * Include the c_api.so in python-mailutils, otherwise it's completely
     useless. Thanks Wojciech Polak for spotting this. NB: this change
     temporarily makes python-mailutils support python 2.5 only. This
     should be fixed for the next upload.
   * Make the Vcs-Svn and Vcs-Browser control fields point to trunk.
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