Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 10:06:20 +0100 From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) To: scott@statsci.com (Scott Blachowicz) Cc: freebsd-bugs@freefall.freebsd.org Subject: Re: bin/2803: /bin/sh 'for' statement vs IFS setting problem Message-ID: <Mutt.19970223100620.j@uriah.heep.sax.de> In-Reply-To: <199702230640.WAA23740@freefall.freebsd.org>; from Scott Blachowicz on Feb 22, 1997 22:40:01 -0800 References: <199702230640.WAA23740@freefall.freebsd.org>
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As Scott Blachowicz wrote:
> Well...here's a few...
>
> basil: IRIX basil 5.2 02282013 IP12 mips
> basil: a
> basil: b
> basil: c
> basil: d
> basil: e
> basil: f
> deck: OSF1 deck.statsci.com V3.2 17 alpha
> deck: a
> deck: b
> deck: c
> deck: d
> deck: e
> deck: f
> hoki: HP-UX hoki B.08.00 A 9000/42E 08000917b2cd
> hoki: a
> hoki: b
> hoki: c
> hoki: d
> hoki: e
> hoki: f
> mace: HP-UX mace A.09.05 A 9000/710 2012684354 two-user license
> mace: a
> mace: b
> mace: c
> mace: d
> mace: e
> mace: f
> main: SunOS main 5.3 Generic sun4m sparc
> main: a
> main: b
> main: c
> main: d
> main: e
> main: f
> spud: SunOS spud 4.1.1 7 sun4c
> spud: a
> spud: b
> spud: c
> spud: d
> spud: e
> spud: f
Which isn't surprising since it's basically all the same obsolete
version of /bin/sh.
When in doubt about some feature, always ask the Korn shell first.
This is the shell blessed by Posix, with all its crocks. We are not
aiming to become bug-compatible with the obsolete Bourne shell, but
we're aiming to become bug-compatible with Posix (which is basically
== bug-compatible with ksh).
Strictly spoken, all these systems should ship with the Korn shell as
/bin/sh if they claim Posix compliance. The Korn shell itself also
thinks it were sh(1):
SH(1) SH(1)
NAME
sh, rsh - shell, the standard/restricted command and pro-
gramming language
However, i'm sure they won't do it within the next 20 or so years.
They fear the hell would break (and don't even trust the freeware
systems that prove that it's not the hell breaking, but only some very
few scripts at all). Think of their habit to still ship a very
obsolete version of awk as their /usr/bin/awk, and the now more than
10 years old version as /usr/bin/nawk (is it really a `new' awk
still?). Or think of the crock Slowaris came up to move their off_t's
to 64 bit. They won't have all their applications using 64-bit
off_t's by 2005, i'm sure of this.
I'm not very proud of various (mis)features of the Korn shell either,
but to the very least, it's a standard that's not only enforced by
using an identical source code on all platforms.
--
cheers, J"org
joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)
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