---
id: "bug-1775"
status: "fixed"
status_updated: "2026-09-24"
status_note: ""
component: "unknown"
severity: "unknown"
timestamp: "2026-09-06T00:00:00Z"
last_seen: "2026-09-19T09:00:00Z"
occurrences: 1
files: []
tags: ["test-infrastructure", "shell-script", "regex", "array-job", "xce-test-multihost", "severity-low"]
related: ["bug-1770"]
legacy: true
---

# bug-1775: xce-test-multihost's run-multihost-verify.sh (resreq-maxtasks-wiring task 4.3, array-job…

## Description
xce-test-multihost's run-multihost-verify.sh (resreq-maxtasks-wiring task 4.3, array-job scenario): verify_task_started_on_host()'s grep -E pattern embedded a raw jobid string directly in an extended-regex alternation. A bracketed array-element jobid (e.g. "<base>[0]") has its "[0]" misparsed by grep -E as a one-character bracket-expression class (matching a literal '0') instead of the literal 3-character substring "[0]" -- causing a false negative: `grep -qE 'Job base[0] ntasks is:'` does not match the literal log line `"Job base[0] ntasks is: 5"`.

## Environment
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## Reproduction
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## Root cause
Extended regular expressions treat unescaped `[...]` as a bracket-expression (character class), not a literal substring. Array-element jobids introduced by task 4.3 are the first jobid format in this harness containing ERE metacharacters (plain jobids are digits/hyphens only); the pre-existing plain-job code path never hit this because grep -E on a digits-and-hyphens-only string has no metacharacters to misparse.

## Fix
FIXED (2026-09-06, resreq-maxtasks-wiring task 4.3): added ere_escape() to run-multihost-verify.sh, applied to any jobid string before use in a grep -E pattern (escapes '[' and ']', the only metacharacters a jobid can contain per fmt_jobid_ex/REGEX_JOBARRAY_ID's digit/hyphen/bracket-only format). Confirmed a byte-identical no-op for plain (non-array) jobids. Reproduced the false negative standalone before the fix and confirmed the escaped pattern matches correctly after, independently re-verified by review.

## Verification
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## References
- Related: bug-1770