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Bug in Build Forge Help or in Build Forge


Tim McDaniel (401146) | asked Jul 29 '10, 2:58 p.m.
The main page of Help says "This edition applies to version 7.1.1.4".

Help page "Variable properties" says

Assign Hidden: The system assigns the variable, but hides the
value in the logs, showing it as "*****". Use this option when you
are including a password or other sensitive information in a
variable. Example: you need to include password information in an
_MAP variable in order to map a drive. You want to hide the
password from users who run the project.

The system normally changes the syntax of a variable in a command
line to the appropriate form for your operating system (%VAR% for
Windows(R), $VAR for Linux(R) and UNIX(R) systems). It does not do
this for a hidden variable. The variable is passed directly to the
server and the operating system environment of the server
interprets the variable.

This appears to be inaccurate. It says that it doesn't interpolate
*the hidden variable*. What appears to happen is that *it doesn't
interpolate ANY variables on that line*.

For example, if PASSWORD is the only hidden variable in a Windows
command and has the value 1234, the documentation says that
some_command -w "${WORKSPACE}" -u "${USER}" -p "%PASSWORD%"
will work, when it fact on Windows it will become
some_command -w "${WORKSPACE}" -u "${USER}" -p "1234"
literally.

I request that Build Forge be changed to match the documentation, so
that it actually did interpolate non-hidden variables. Failing that,
the Build Forge documentation should be changed to match the
behavior.

--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@panix.com

2 answers



permanent link
Tim McDaniel (401146) | answered Jul 30 '10, 12:53 p.m.
In article <i2t13a>,
Tim McDaniel <tmcd> wrote:
The main page of Help says "This edition applies to version 7.1.1.4".
....
This appears to be inaccurate. It says that it doesn't interpolate
*the hidden variable*. What appears to happen is that *it doesn't
interpolate ANY variables on that line*.

The bug report mentioned in the reply is more accurate.
*It doesn't interpolate ANY variables anywhere in the step*.

I don't know what happens if there's a dot command to break the list
of script commands: I don't know whether that turns on interpolation,
or whether it keeps not-interpolating to the end of the step.

--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@panix.com

permanent link
Brent Ulbricht (2.5k11) | answered Jul 30 '10, 3:42 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER
The main page of Help says "This edition applies to version 7.1.1.4".

Help page "Variable properties" says

Assign Hidden: The system assigns the variable, but hides the
value in the logs, showing it as "*****". Use this option when you
are including a password or other sensitive information in a
variable. Example: you need to include password information in an
_MAP variable in order to map a drive. You want to hide the
password from users who run the project.

The system normally changes the syntax of a variable in a command
line to the appropriate form for your operating system (%VAR% for
Windows(R), $VAR for Linux(R) and UNIX(R) systems). It does not do
this for a hidden variable. The variable is passed directly to the
server and the operating system environment of the server
interprets the variable.

This appears to be inaccurate. It says that it doesn't interpolate
*the hidden variable*. What appears to happen is that *it doesn't
interpolate ANY variables on that line*.

For example, if PASSWORD is the only hidden variable in a Windows
command and has the value 1234, the documentation says that
some_command -w "${WORKSPACE}" -u "${USER}" -p "%PASSWORD%"
will work, when it fact on Windows it will become
some_command -w "${WORKSPACE}" -u "${USER}" -p "1234"
literally.

I request that Build Forge be changed to match the documentation, so
that it actually did interpolate non-hidden variables. Failing that,
the Build Forge documentation should be changed to match the
behavior.

--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@panix.com


Hi Tim,

I've opened a defect for this issue. It's currently assigned to the docs component. You should be able to follow its progress at http://jazz.net/jazz08/web/projects/Rational%20Build%20Forge#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=17066 .

bju

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