mcpp-community · Sunrisepeak · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026 · Sep 16, 2026
diff --git a/.agents/docs/2026-09-17-655-arguments-are-not-the-command-the-build-runs.md b/.agents/docs/2026-09-17-655-arguments-are-not-the-command-the-build-runs.md
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+---
+subject: triage
+status: active
+---
+
+# #655: the `arguments` array is not the command the build runs
+
+**Revision 2026-09-17 (before implementation).** §3 proposed that the
+database adopt each host's own reading (C1) and that defines be tagged at
+ingestion (C2). The maintainer asked for the option with the best cross-platform
+compatibility, so the adopted design replaces C1: an element of `cflags`,
+`cxxflags` and `asmflags` has one host-independent syntax, the build quotes each
+word for its host, and the databases list the words without reading any command
+line back. C2 is kept in a simpler form (a define enters the list already
+spelled as one word). §3 below is the proposal as written; the adopted design,
+its criteria and the findings made while implementing are
+`2026-09-17-655-implementation-plan.md`.
+
+**Issue:** mcpp-community/mcpp#655, "emit build-database: shell-escaped quotes
+inside the `arguments` array break consumers".
+
+Engine code was read at `51aeee0e` (origin/main, mcpp 2026.9.16.2). A statement
+marked *measured* was run on Linux x86_64 with the released mcpp 2026.9.16.2 and
+`gcc@16.1.0`; the probe is `2026-09-17-655-probe.sh`. A statement marked *read*
+names a file and line and was not executed. Nothing here ran on macOS or Windows.
+
+## 1. Verdict
+
+The report is a real engine defect, and it is not a documentation question.
+SPEC-005 R3.6 and R3.7 state that a unit's `arguments` is its compile command
+and that it is the same record `compile_commands.json` lists; the JSON
+Compilation Database and S1 both define `arguments` as an argument vector that
+is executed without a shell. Consumers should not unescape defensively: after
+the fix below, a defensive unescape would corrupt a define whose value really
+contains a backslash.
+
+The issue describes one case. The defect is wider. The probe compares, for five
+macros, the value the compiler receives when ninja runs the build with the value
+it receives when the database's `arguments` is executed directly (*measured*):
+
+| Declared in `mcpp.toml` | Build (ninja, `/bin/sh -c`) | `arguments` executed | Agree |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| `cflags = ["-DESC=\\\"esc.h\\\""]` (the libarchive form) | `ESC "esc.h"` | `ESC \"esc.h\"` | no, #655 |
+| `cflags = ["-DMID=\"mid\""]` | `MID mid` | `MID "mid"` | no |
+| `cflags = ["-DSQ='sq'"]` | `SQ sq` | `SQ 'sq'` | no |
+| `defines = ["DEF=\"def\""]` | `DEF def` | `DEF "def"` | no, and the build is the wrong one |
+| `defines = ["SPACE=\"a b\""]` | `SPACE "a b"` | `SPACE "a` plus a stray argument `b"`; the compiler exits 1 | no |
+
+Only the database's reading of `SPACE` stops the compiler. The other four
+disagreements compile silently with a different macro value, which is the worse
+form for a language server.
+
+## 2. Cause
+
+### 2.1 Two word splitters answer one question, and the per-unit path uses the wrong one
+
+The ninja rule is `command = $cc $cflags $unit_cflags ...`
+(`src/build/ninja_backend.cppm:1246`), and ninja runs it with `/bin/sh -c` on
+POSIX hosts and with `CreateProcess` on Windows. Every flag string in the engine
+is therefore text in the host's command-line syntax. The database has to turn
+that text back into words by the same rules the host applies.
+
+The engine contains two splitters for that purpose (*read*):
+
+- `mcpp::build::split_flags` (`src/build/compile_commands.cppm:133`) is used for
+  every translation unit in both databases. It undoes ninja's `$` escapes and
+  removes a quote only when the quote opens a token. It does not implement
+  backslash escapes, it treats a quote in the middle of a token as data, and it
+  has one rule for both hosts. The unit test
+  `CompileCommandsArgs.InnerQuotesAreNotStripped`
+  (`tests/unit/test_compile_commands.cpp:307`) asserts the second of these
+  choices, so the divergence in rows MID and SQ is pinned by a test rather than
+  merely untested.
+- `split_command_words` (`src/build/build_database.cppm:309`), added in #636 for
+  the standard library units (R3.11), implements POSIX `sh` word splitting
+  (backslash outside quotes, the four escapable characters inside double quotes,
+  quotes anywhere in a word) and, separately, the MSVCRT rules that
+  `CreateProcess` programs use.
+
+The second splitter is the correct one, and it already exists. The per-unit path
+was never moved onto it.
+
+### 2.2 The database joins package flags differently from the build
+
+`package_flag_args` (`src/build/compile_commands.cppm:211`) joins
+`packageCflags`/`packageCxxflags` with bare spaces. The build joins the same
+vector with `join_flags` (`src/build/ninja_backend.cppm:198`), which
+shell-quotes a `-D` element that contains a space (mcpp#234). The database
+therefore parses a string the build never wrote, which is why `SPACE` is cut in
+two even though its quotes open the token.
+
+### 2.3 The silent twin: `defines` values lose their quotes in the build
+
+`join_flags` quotes a define only when it contains a space. The `defines` key is
+documented as `name` or `name=value` (`docs/04-mcpp-toml.md:333`), that is a
+value and not shell text, but `DEF="def"` reaches `sh` unquoted and the compiler
+receives `-DDEF=def` (*measured*). This is a build defect that the database
+defect was hiding: once the database agrees with the build, it will faithfully
+report the wrong value.
+
+The quoting cannot simply be widened to every `-D` element, because
+`scanner.cppm:1209` pushes `defines` into the same vector as raw `cflags`, and a
+raw `cflags` element such as libarchive's `-DPLATFORM_CONFIG_H=\"...\"` is shell
+text that must not be quoted again. The origin of the element is lost at
+ingestion.
+
+## 3. Proposed changes
+
+### C1. One splitter, one rendering (fixes #655 and rows MID, SQ, SPACE)
+
+1. Move `split_command_words` out of `build_database.cppm` into
+   `compile_commands.cppm` (or `flags.cppm`) as the single host-command-line
+   splitter, and make `split_flags` "undo ninja `$` escapes, then
+   `split_command_words(s, is_windows)`". The ninja unescape must come first, as
+   it does today, because `escape_ninja_chars` runs before `shell_quote_arg`.
+2. Make `package_flag_args` call `join_flags` (export it from `ninja_backend` or
+   move it beside `shell_quote_arg` in `flags.cppm`), so the database parses the
+   byte string the build writes.
+3. Replace `InnerQuotesAreNotStripped` with a test stating the opposite: a
+   mid-token quote is quoting, because `sh` treats it so.
+
+No manifest or index change is needed. The libarchive recipe
+(`mcpp-index/pkgs/c/compat.libarchive.lua:48`) is correct shell text for the
+contract the build already implements.
+
+### C2. `defines` are values, rendered by the engine (fixes row DEF)
+
+Keep the origin of a define through ingestion: either a separate
+`packageDefines` vector on the unit, or the element pushed already rendered with
+`shell_quote_arg`. `join_flags` then quotes every define that contains any
+character in `shell_quote_arg`'s trigger set, not only a space, and never
+touches a raw `cflags` element.
+
+This changes the build's output for a define whose value contains a quote,
+backslash, `$` or similar. No package in `mcpp-community/mcpp-index` declares
+such a `defines` entry (*read*, grep over `pkgs/`), so the change is visible
+only to a project that relied on the value being shell text. It should be named
+in the release notes.
+
+### C3. State the flag contract in the documentation
+
+`docs/04-mcpp-toml.md` (and its `zh` copy) should state that a `cflags`,
+`cxxflags` or `ldflags` element is command-line text in the host's syntax and may
+hold several words (`-include foo.h`), whereas a `defines` element is one value
+that mcpp quotes. SPEC-005 R3.6 should add one sentence: `arguments` holds the
+words the host passes to the compiler, after the host's quoting is removed.
+
+A further change, holding flags as argument vectors from ingestion to the ninja
+writer so that no string is ever parsed back, would remove the splitter
+altogether. It is not proposed here: the index publishes flag elements that pack
+several words, so it needs a manifest contract change and a migration, and C1
+already makes the database agree with the build by construction.
+
+## 4. Criteria
+
+- **K1 (differential, the one that decides C1).** For a table of flag strings,
+  including every row of §1, a path with a space, `$ORIGIN`, `-include x.h`, a
+  backslash that precedes no quote, and an empty quoted argument, the words
+  `split_flags` returns equal the argv that `/bin/sh -c 'printf "%s\0" <string>'`
+  prints. On Windows the reference is a helper that prints its own `argv`.
+  The oracle is the host, not an expectation written by hand.
+- **K2 (end to end).** `2026-09-17-655-probe.sh` prints identical `READING
+  build` and `READING database` lines for all five macros, and the database's
+  exec returns 0.
+- **K3 (row DEF).** `READING build: #define DEF "def"`. Before C2 it reads
+  `DEF def`.
+- **K4 (revert).** Revert C1 alone and K1 and K2 turn red; revert C2 alone and
+  K3 turns red. A criterion that stays green without its change measures nothing.
+- **K5 (consumer).** The reporter's case: `openxlings/xlings` with the released
+  build produces `-DPLATFORM_CONFIG_H="mcpp_libarchive_config.h"` in both
+  databases, and mcpp-language-server indexes libarchive without the
+  `expected "FILENAME"` error.
+
+## 5. Open points for review
+
+1. Windows was not measured. `split_command_words(…, windows=true)` follows the
+   MSVCRT rules; whether every Windows compile edge is a plain `CreateProcess`
+   (no `cmd /c` wrapper, which would add cmd.exe's own parsing) should be read
+   from `ninja_backend.cppm` before K1's Windows leg is written.
+2. A raw `cflags` element with single quotes (`-DSQ='sq'`) already yields a
+   different macro on Linux (`sq`) and on Windows (`'sq'`), because the flag is
+   host command-line text. C1 makes the database report each host faithfully;
+   it does not make the manifest portable. C3 documents that; whether to
+   normalise raw flags to one syntax is a separate decision.
+3. The reply to the reporter: `arguments` is exec-ready, the escaped form is an
+   engine defect, and consumers should not unescape.