ruby / ruby/spec

logname may not produce a login name

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Dominant language
Ruby
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Running the specs on JRuby on Github Actions, we see the following message and failing spec:

...
logname: no login name
...
1)
Etc.getlogin returns the name associated with the current login activity FAILED
Expected "runner" == ""
to be truthy but was false
/home/runner/work/jruby/jruby/spec/ruby/library/etc/getlogin_spec.rb:22:in `block in <main>'
...

This can occur when logname is run without a controlling terminal. I'm unsure whether this GHA env is not setting up a tty, or if there's an issue launching the command in JRuby that prevents it inheriting the parent terminal, but it seems like id would be a more reliable command to use:

diff --git a/spec/ruby/library/etc/getlogin_spec.rb b/spec/ruby/library/etc/getlogin_spec.rb
index 7a4fd79ae2..f0dde84ccb 100644
--- a/spec/ruby/library/etc/getlogin_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/ruby/library/etc/getlogin_spec.rb
@@ -18,11 +18,13 @@ describe "Etc.getlogin" do
         else
           # Etc.getlogin returns the same result of logname(2)
           # if it returns non NULL
-          if system("which logname", out: File::NULL, err: File::NULL)
+          if system("which id", out: File::NULL, err: File::NULL)
+            Etc.getlogin.should == `id -un`.chomp
+          elsif system("which logname", out: File::NULL, err: File::NULL)
+            # fallback to `logname` command since `id` is not available
             Etc.getlogin.should == `logname`.chomp
           else
-            # fallback to `id` command since `logname` is not available
-            Etc.getlogin.should == `id -un`.chomp
+            Etc.getlogin.should == ENV['LOGNAME']
           end
         end
       else

However I think we are also stacking too many conditions here. I'm unsure of the "best" way to get the current login, but clearly logname has issues that make it undesirable.

FWIW some forums suggest logname -t which will ensure a tty is created, but this flag is not present on BSD-likes.

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with spec/ruby/library/etc/getlogin_spec.rb:22 and reproduce the failing Etc.getlogin example on JRuby in the GitHub Actions environment. Compare the available login-name commands and environment value described in the issue, then make the spec handle environments without a controlling terminal. Done means the spec passes on JRuby while retaining a fallback when commands are unavailable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ruby
Domain
testing-qa
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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