Emacs tramp troubles with old Sun

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

Today's GNU Emacs CVS snapshot, Tue, 2007 Nov  6    10:52 UTC
GNU Emacs 23.0.50.11 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.10.13) 
started with

     /usr/local/src/emacs/src/emacs -Q -D

A new 64 bit machine succeeded when I evaluated:

    (find-file "/ssh:bob@fp.gnu.org:~bob" nil) 

but a Sun dated May 2002 SunOS 5.9 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2
failed when I evaluated:

    (find-file "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:~bob" nil)

Incidently, on shell.berkshire.net

     $ test -e /tmp
    test: argument expected

     $ which test   
    /usr/ucb/test
     $ echo $PATH
    .:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/etc:/usr/ucb:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11/bin

I tried adding /usr/ucb/test to  tramp-find-file-exists-command 
but that failed.

I also put /usr/ucb/test in  tramp-get-test-command
and that failed, too.

The contents of both the *Backtrace* buffer and the 
*debug tramp/ssh bob@shell.berkshire.net* buffer are enclosed.
`tramp-verbose' is set to 8



The *Backtrace* buffer said:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Couldn't find exit status of `test -d /tmp/MAILCHECK\\:\\ cannot\\ unset'")
  signal(file-error ("Couldn't find exit status of `test -d /tmp/MAILCHECK\\:\\ cannot\\ unset'"))
  tramp-send-command-and-check(["ssh" "bob" "shell.berkshire.net" "/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset"] "test -d /tmp/MAILCHECK\\:\\ cannot\\ unset")
  tramp-run-test("-d" "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  tramp-handle-file-directory-p("/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  apply(tramp-handle-file-directory-p "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  tramp-sh-file-name-handler(file-directory-p "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  apply(tramp-sh-file-name-handler file-directory-p "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  tramp-file-name-handler(file-directory-p "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  file-directory-p("/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:/tmp/MAILCHECK: cannot unset")
  find-file-noselect("/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:~bob" nil nil nil)
  find-file("/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:~bob" nil)
  eval((find-file "/ssh:bob@shell.berkshire.net:~bob" nil))
  eval-last-sexp-1(nil)
  eval-last-sexp(nil)
  call-interactively(eval-last-sexp)


With    (setq tramp-verbose 8)    the
*debug tramp/ssh bob@shell.berkshire.net* buffer said:

14:08:25 tramp-maybe-open-connection (3) # Opening connection for bob@shell.berkshire.net using ssh...
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # process-name nil
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # process-buffer nil
14:08:25 tramp-maybe-open-connection (6) # /bin/sh
14:08:25 tramp-maybe-open-connection (3) # Waiting 60s for local shell to come up...
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # check-remote-echo nil
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # check-remote-echo nil
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # check-remote-echo nil
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # check-remote-echo nil
14:08:25 tramp-wait-for-regexp (6) # 
$ 
14:08:25 tramp-get-file-property (8) #  gateway nil
14:08:25 tramp-set-connection-property (7) # temp-file /tmp/tramp.9871-iH
14:08:25 tramp-maybe-open-connection (3) # Sending command `ssh shell.berkshire.net -l bob  -e none && exit || exit'
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # process-name nil
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # remote-echo nil
14:08:25 tramp-send-command (6) # ssh shell.berkshire.net -l bob  -e none && exit || exit
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # process-name nil
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # chunksize nil
14:08:25 tramp-set-connection-property (7) # last-cmd-time (18224 30041 100699)
14:08:25 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # process-buffer nil
14:08:25 tramp-process-actions (3) # Waiting for prompts from remote shell
14:08:26 tramp-process-one-action (5) # Looking for regexp ".*ogin\( .*\)?: *\'" from remote shell
14:08:26 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # check-remote-echo nil
14:08:26 tramp-get-connection-property (7) # check-remote-echo nil
14:08:26 tramp-process-one-action (5) # Looking for regexp "^.*\([pP]assword\|[pP]assphrase\).*: