From owner-freebsd-standards Sat Oct 26 20:25:15 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-standards@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA3B037B401 for ; Sat, 26 Oct 2002 20:25:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from chiark.greenend.org.uk (chiark.greenend.org.uk [193.201.200.170]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C27CA43E6A for ; Sat, 26 Oct 2002 20:25:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from fanf@chiark.greenend.org.uk) Received: from fanf by chiark.greenend.org.uk with local (Exim 3.12 #1) id 185e36-0007f1-00 (Debian); Sun, 27 Oct 2002 03:25:12 +0000 Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 03:25:12 +0000 From: Tony Finch To: Garrett Wollman Cc: Mark Valentine , freebsd-standards@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /usr/posix: a first cut Message-ID: <20021027032512.A27342@chiark.greenend.org.uk> References: <200210262036.g9QKadk2025534@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> <200210262115.g9QLFeCw014715@dotar.thuvia.org> <200210262224.g9QMO4pw026010@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <200210262224.g9QMO4pw026010@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>; from wollman@lcs.mit.edu on Sat, Oct 26, 2002 at 06:24:04PM -0400 Sender: owner-freebsd-standards@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, Oct 26, 2002 at 06:24:04PM -0400, Garrett Wollman wrote: > > That's because the only POSIX-compliant shell on Solaris is called > `/usr/xpg4/bin/sh'. Since /usr/xpg4/bin is the first directory in the > standard PATH, this is OK (even if confusing and poor QOI). As far as I can tell you have to explicitly put /usr/xpg4/bin in your path on Solaris in order to get post-1980s behaviour, and it will not do that for you by default. Coding "portably" (i.e. coding to standards) is all very well, but it does not mean that your code will run on lots of systems. If you want to write a script that will run on many unices then you have to code to the 7th Edition. FreeBSD should remain compatible with that (for the sake of antediluvian scripts and Solaris) and with BSDs from recent years (so that autoconf doesn't lose its marbles) and aim for newer standards as a lower priority. Tony. -- f.a.n.finch http://dotat.at/ FORTIES CROMARTY FORTH TYNE DOGGER: SOUTHERLY 4 OR 5 BECOMING CYCLONIC THEN NORTHWESTERLY 6 TO GALE 8, PERHAPS SEVERE GALE 9 LATER. RAIN. MODERATE. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-standards" in the body of the message