Unintuitive error messages in REPL shell

[sbromberger]

shell> !
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `)'

shell> (
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `)'

I understand that these might not be valid shell commands but the syntax error is puzzling.

[jiahao]

These errors are emitted by the shell, not Julia. However, it looks like the shell receives an extra level of parentheses: at the ordinary bash prompt the errors are

bash-3.2$ !
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
bash-3.2$ (
> 

The second simply continues waiting for the closing right parenthesis.

c.f.

bash-3.2$ ! )
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `)'
bash-3.2$ ( )
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `)'

[vtjnash]

duplicate of #10120

[sbromberger]

Technically, #10120 is a duplicate of this one.

[vtjnash]

i usually keep whichever issue has more discussion (or analysis). usually that's the older issue, but sometimes it's the newer issue.