tab completion with variable expansion broken

[William F Hammond]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i686
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/local/src/gnu/share/locale' 
-DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib   -g -O2
uname output: Linux jeanubu 3.2.0-32-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 26 21:32:50 
UTC 2012 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 4.2
Patch Level: 37
Release Status: release

Description:
        If I have ul=/usr/local in the environment, I may want to
        use a reference to it together with tab completion to go to
        the directory /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp.

        If I enter "cd $ul/sh" (which has a unique completion) followed
        by <TAB>, bash turns my input into the string
        
                  "cd \$ul/share "

        Since nearly the beginning of time it was turning that input
        into
                  "cd /usr/local/share/"
        
        The old behavior is correct.  The new behavior is doubly
        clumsy.  I need EXTRA input steps to continue with tab
        completion toward the target.  I can use C-M-E to get
        
                  "cd $ul/share "
                  
        and then a backspace and "/" plus the normal "em" followed
        by <TAB> to get
        
                  "cd \$ul/local/share/emacs "

        Then two more extra steps with the next layer.

        I can't believe that RMS would agree with this change.

Repeat-By:
        See above.

Postscript:
        The first delivery attempt bounced.

        The program bashbug seems not to know how to recognize
a fully qualified domain name (for "From:").  It should be prompting
for that and for SMTP host.  (Then there's the issue of SMTP
authentication.)

                              -- Bill