A bug in Ragel?

[DinSoft]

Hello everyone,

I don't understand Ragel's behaviour on one point.
Currently, I am implementing a parser for SPF (RFC 4408).

Everything was fine and working well but this.

Here is a snippet of the grammar rules in Ragel's syntax (full ABNF
available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4408.txt):

                qualifier = ([+-?~]) >action_qualifier_1
@action_qualifier_2;

                all = ("all"i) >action_all_1 @action_all_2;
                version = ("v=spf1"i) >action_version_1
@action_version_2;

		name = (alpha ( alpha | digit | "-" | "_" | "." )*) >action_name_1
@action_name_2;

		redirect = ("redirect"i "=" domain_spec) >action_redirect_1
@action_redirect_2;
		unknown_modifier = (name "=" macro_string)
>action_unknown_modifier_1 @action_unknown_modifier_2;
		explanation = ("exp"i "=" domain_spec) >action_explanation_1
@action_explanation_2;

                mechanism = (all | include2 | A | MX | PTR | IP4 | IP6
| exists) >action_mechanism_1 @action_mechanism_2;
		directive = ((qualifier)? mechanism) >action_directive_1
@action_directive_2;

		terms_spaces = ((' '){1,}) >action_terms_spaces_1
@action_terms_spaces_2;
		terms_directive = (terms_spaces directive) >action_terms_directive_1
@action_terms_directive_2;
		terms_modifier = (terms_spaces modifier) >action_terms_modifier_1
@action_terms_modifier_2;
		terms = (( terms_directive | terms_modifier )*) >action_terms_1
@action_terms_2;					# May be empty

		record_spaces = ((' ')*) >action_record_spaces_1
@action_record_spaces_2;						# May be empty
		record = (version terms record_spaces) >action_record_1
@action_record_2;

		# Language's starting rule
		main := record;

With the following user-action for qualifier:
 		# qualifier
		action action_qualifier_1 {
			element.type = PARSE_ELEMENT_TYPE_QUALIFIER_START;
			element.start = fpc;

			if (doubleLinkedListAddLast(&qualifier, element)) {
				goto atoi_error;
			}
		}

		action action_qualifier_2 {
			element.type = PARSE_ELEMENT_TYPE_QUALIFIER_STOP;
			element.stop = fpc;

			if (doubleLinkedListAddLast(&qualifier, element)) {
				goto atoi_error;
			}
		}

(all rule do have the same kind of user actions).


Now I find amazing that, on the input "v=spf1 =all" , I am getting the
'=' as being considered as a qualifier !

Here is the dump of my doubleLinkedList for qualifier:
Parsing: v=spf1 =all!
qualifier list: 2 elements in the list!
        Start: 134729663 (=)
        Stop: 134729663 (=)

When I go back to the rule of qualifier, I see:
 qualifier = ([+-?~]) >action_qualifier_1 @action_qualifier_2;

So how is it possible that Ragel considers '=' as being a qualifier?

I was expecting a parse error (from the rule unknown_modifier ,
because the rule "name" cannot be empty).

Thanks for your help !

Regards,
 Dinesh Bolkensteyn