[tex-k] LaTeX segfaults with source specials and space in filename

[Frank Küster]

Hi texk folks,

In the Bugtracking system for tetex on Debian GNU/Linux, we've got the
following bug report. Please be so kind and keep the Cc: in any answer,
especially the numbered address ("we" are the mailing list of tetex
maintainers, and I didn't want to subscribe a list to a list).

This invocation of LaTeX (or pdflatex, not e-LaTeX) segfaults:

    latex --src-specials '\nonstopmode\input{foo bar.tex}'

(AucTeX invokes LaTeX this way.)

If you remove the --src-specials or the space in the filename, or you
invoke it by

    latex 'foo bar.tex'

it behaves as expected (i.e. on Linux systems gives a TeX error that the
file cannot be found). The existence or non-existence of the LaTeX
source file doesn't change the behavior, of course.

This does make a difference, because AucTeX will handle TeX errors well,
but give not useful information when its child segfaults.

I know we should be using e-TeX by default, but still it would be good
to fix this problem.

Thank you, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster, Biozentrum der Univ. Basel
Abt. Biophysikalische Chemie