Motivation
Currently, BashSession._run_normal() uses bash -n to validate commands before execution. While intended to prevent session hangs, this pre-check is too aggressive and problematic for programmatic use cases:
- False Positives: Valid but complex commands (especially those involving nested
awk, sed, or multi-line strings) are occasionally flagged as syntax errors by the heredoc-based check, even though they would run fine in a real shell.
- Inconsistent Error Feedback: When a syntax error is real, the system raises a
BashIncorrectSyntaxError (HTTP 511) instead of allowing the bash session to return the actual standard error (e.g., bash: syntax error near...). This prevents the caller from receiving authentic shell feedback.
- Redundancy: The existing
action.timeout and pexpect buffer management are generally sufficient to handle hung sessions.
We understand this was introduced in PR #63 (addressing Issue #25) to ensure session stability. However, for many automated workflows, the pre-check acts more as a barrier than a safeguard.
Proposed Changes
Add a way to bypass _check_bash_command, such as:
- An environment variable:
SWEREX_DISABLE_SYNTAX_CHECK=1
- A server-side flag:
--no-syntax-check
Reproduction
The following common patterns are currently blocked before execution:
# These raise BashIncorrectSyntaxError but should be handled by the shell itself
commands = [
"echo 'unclosed quote",
"if [ -f file ]; then echo 1", # Missing 'fi'
"cat file | | grep pattern" # Empty pipe
]By allowing these to execute, the user receives the raw stderr from the environment, which is often more useful than a generic 511 exception.
Motivation
Currently,
BashSession._run_normal()usesbash -nto validate commands before execution. While intended to prevent session hangs, this pre-check is too aggressive and problematic for programmatic use cases:awk,sed, or multi-line strings) are occasionally flagged as syntax errors by the heredoc-based check, even though they would run fine in a real shell.BashIncorrectSyntaxError(HTTP 511) instead of allowing the bash session to return the actual standard error (e.g.,bash: syntax error near...). This prevents the caller from receiving authentic shell feedback.action.timeoutand pexpect buffer management are generally sufficient to handle hung sessions.We understand this was introduced in PR #63 (addressing Issue #25) to ensure session stability. However, for many automated workflows, the pre-check acts more as a barrier than a safeguard.
Proposed Changes
Add a way to bypass
_check_bash_command, such as:SWEREX_DISABLE_SYNTAX_CHECK=1--no-syntax-checkReproduction
The following common patterns are currently blocked before execution:
By allowing these to execute, the user receives the raw
stderrfrom the environment, which is often more useful than a generic 511 exception.