SLP installation source fails when description line in reg file contains round brackets ()

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2

Situation

To reproduce the issue:

Create a server installation source and check the 'advertise via SLP' option.
This should create, /etc/slp.reg.d/YaST-xxxxx.reg.
Ensure the 'description' line in the '.reg' file contains round brackets () - it does by default.

Boot another server with the SLES10sp2 disk.
At the install screen, select F4 > SLP, and install.
This should fail to find the SLP install source.

Remove the round brackets from the 'description' line in the '.reg' file.
Restart 'slpd' and try again; this should work.

Changing options in the /etc/slp.conf appears to make no difference.

Resolution

Workaround

The round brackets in the 'description' field are reserved characters, if brackets are required square brackets [] are legal characters to use.
Once the round brackets are removed/replaced restart SLP:
/etc/init.d/slpd restart

Fix

This issue has been fixed in the following patches:
- yast2-instserver-2.13.18 (SLES10 sp3)
- yast2-instserver-2.18.1 (SLE11 sp1)

Additional Information

SLP reserved characters include the following:
( ) , \ ! < = > ~

For more information see:

An API for Service Location
http://www.openslp.org/doc/rfc/rfc2614.txt

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