DO set-path! should trigger an error

[Siskin-Bot]

Submitted by: BrianH

Calling DO with a set-word! or set-path! value doesn't do anything, and certainly doesn't set anything - nor should it, due to security issues. There really isn't a good reason to allow DOing such values. So it's good that DO set-word! triggers an error. However, DO set-path! doesn't trigger that error, it just returns the set-path! value, which makes it difficult to track down the bug of trying to DO a set-path! value.

I would like DO set-path! to trigger an invalid argument error. This would aid debugging greatly.

>> do quote a:
** Script error: invalid argument: a:
** Where: do
** Near: do quote a:

>> do quote a/1:
== a/1:  ; Should trigger that error too

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^{Imported from: CureCode [ Version: alpha 111 Type: Wish Platform: All Category: Datatype Reproduce: Always Fixed-in:none ]
Imported from: metaeducation#1883}

Comments:

Rebolbot commented on Feb 20, 2014:

Submitted by: BrianH

Fixed in rebol/rebol#184

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Rebolbot commented on Jan 6, 2016:

Submitted by: Ladislav

"Calling DO with a set-word! or set-path! value doesn't do anything, and certainly doesn't set anything - nor should it, due to security issues."

Interesting, this is what I think: for a set-word assigned to a variable, e.g., as follows: variable: first [a:], there are no security issues resolved by prevention of the explicit assignment using:

do :variable :some-value

Proof: even if the explicit assignment is prevented, it is possible to make the assignment implicitly:

do reduce [:variable quote :some-value]

What am I missing?

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Rebolbot commented on Jan 7, 2016:

Submitted by: Ladislav

"There really isn't a good reason to allow DOing such values."

That is not true, at least as far as I am concerned.

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Rebolbot mentioned this issue on Jan 22, 2016:
[Epic] DO word, path and set-path

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Rebolbot added the Type.wish on Jan 12, 2016

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