cryptic error message

cryptic error message

[William Scott]

I've introduced something bad into a startup file, so when a shell  
session exits, I get the message

"zsh: error in flags"

Any idea where to start looking?

Re: cryptic error message

[Matt Wozniski]

You could always post the startup file.  :)  As a suggestion, search
in the file with your favorite editor for lines that contain "${(".
It's probably referring to an invalid flag inside of a set of
parentheses immediately following the beginning of a parameter
substitution.  Comment out those lines one by one and see which one
makes the error stop.  Also, if it's on exit, you should limit your
search to .zlogout and any traps that you have set on exit.

~Matt

On 11/16/06, William Scott <wgscott@chemistry.ucsc.edu> wrote:
> I've introduced something bad into a startup file, so when a shell
> session exits, I get the message
>
> "zsh: error in flags"
>
> Any idea where to start looking?
>
>
>

From zsh-users-return-10997-mason-zsh=primenet.com.au@sunsite.dk Fri Nov 17 03:11:18 2006
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Message-ID: <17393e3e0611161900u4dfb92d7h9d6d19a8a7eda70e@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:00:15 -0500
From: "Matt Wozniski" <godlygeek@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mjw@drexel.edu
To: zsh-users@sunsite.dk
Subject: Re: cryptic error message
In-Reply-To: <A93263AF-A4DF-4B43-A85A-70BC51E50AD7@chemistry.ucsc.edu>
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References: <A93263AF-A4DF-4B43-A85A-70BC51E50AD7@chemistry.ucsc.edu>

You could always post the startup file.  :)  As a suggestion, search
in the file with your favorite editor for lines that contain "${(".
It's probably referring to an invalid flag inside of a set of
parentheses immediately following the beginning of a parameter
substitution.  Comment out those lines one by one and see which one
makes the error stop.  Also, if it's on exit, you should limit your
search to .zlogout and any traps that you have set on exit.

~Matt

On 11/16/06, William Scott <wgscott@chemistry.ucsc.edu> wrote:
> I've introduced something bad into a startup file, so when a shell
> session exits, I get the message
>
> "zsh: error in flags"
>
> Any idea where to start looking?
>
>
>

Re: cryptic error message

[William Scott]

Matt Wozniski wrote:
> You could always post the startup file.  :)

Careful what you ask for:  http://murl.info/15261



>  As a suggestion, search
> in the file with your favorite editor for lines that contain "${(".
> It's probably referring to an invalid flag inside of a set of
> parentheses immediately following the beginning of a parameter
> substitution.  Comment out those lines one by one and see which one
> makes the error stop.  Also, if it's on exit, you should limit your
> search to .zlogout and any traps that you have set on exit.

OK, I think that should narrow it down.


>
> ~Matt
>
> On 11/16/06, William Scott <wgscott@chemistry.ucsc.edu> wrote:
>> I've introduced something bad into a startup file, so when a shell
>> session exits, I get the message
>>
>> "zsh: error in flags"
>>
>> Any idea where to start looking?
>>
>>
>>
>

Re: cryptic error message

[William Scott]

William Scott wrote:
>
>
> Matt Wozniski wrote:
>> You could always post the startup file.  :)
>
> Careful what you ask for:  http://murl.info/15261
>

Actually it turned out it was in none of those files but rather my private
.zshrc

SORRY!

Re: cryptic error message

[William Scott]

It turns out it was something that was suggested for directory stack
saving a few weeks ago here:


print -r "dirstack=(${( <at> qq)dirstack})" > $SAVED_DIRSTACK



William Scott wrote:
>
>
> William Scott wrote:
>>
>>
>> Matt Wozniski wrote:
>>> You could always post the startup file.  :)
>>
>> Careful what you ask for:  http://murl.info/15261
>>
>
> Actually it turned out it was in none of those files but rather my private
> .zshrc
>
> SORRY!
>

Re: cryptic error message

[Bart Schaefer]

On Nov 16,  8:20pm, William Scott wrote:
}
} It turns out it was something that was suggested for directory stack
} saving a few weeks ago here:
} 
} print -r "dirstack=(${( <at> qq)dirstack})" > $SAVED_DIRSTACK

That " <at> " is supposed to be an at-sign (shift-2 on a US keyboard).
Somebody's anti-harvesting software appears to have believed that was
part of an email address and rewritten it to obscure the at-sign.