From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Return-Path: <zsh-workers-return-35404-mason-zsh=primenet.com.au@zsh.org>
Received: (qmail 16205 invoked by alias); 7 Jun 2015 00:28:55 -0000
Mailing-List: contact zsh-workers-help@zsh.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
X-No-Archive: yes
List-Id: Zsh Workers List <zsh-workers.zsh.org>
List-Post: <mailto:zsh-workers@zsh.org>
List-Help: <mailto:zsh-workers-help@zsh.org>
X-Seq: 35404
Received: (qmail 9769 invoked from network); 7 Jun 2015 00:28:50 -0000
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on f.primenet.com.au
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,
	RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3,RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL,TO_NO_BRKTS_PCNT autolearn=no
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0
Message-ID: <55738EFE.1050805@inlv.org>
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 02:23:26 +0200
From: Martijn Dekker <martijn@inlv.org>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.2.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: zsh-workers@zsh.org
Subject: In POSIX mode, ${#var} measures length in bytes, not characters
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

When in 'emulate sh' mode, ${#var} substitutes the length of the
variable in bytes, not characters. This is contrary to the standard; the
length in characters is supposed to be substituted.[*]

Oddly enough, zsh is POSIX compliant here in native mode, but
non-compliant in POSIX mode.

Confirmed in zsh 4.3.11 (Mac OS X), 5.0.2 (Linux) and 5.0.8 (Mac OS X).

$ zsh
% locale
LANG="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="nl_NL.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
% mot=arrêté
% echo ${#mot}
6
% emulate sh
% echo ${#mot}
8

- Martijn

[*] Reference:
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html#tag_18_06_02
> ${#parameter}
>     String Length. The length in characters of the value of parameter
>     shall be substituted. [...]