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Date:      Wed, 22 Sep 2021 22:03:40 +0200
From:      Alban Hertroys <haramrae@gmail.com>
To:        Baptiste Daroussin <bapt@freebsd.org>
Cc:        current@freebsd.org, "arch@freebsd.org" <arch@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: [HEADSUP] making /bin/sh the default shell for root
Message-ID:  <9A7E9AB0-1A59-4E8C-86EC-EFD8A3147112@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20210922083645.4vnoajyvwq6wfhdf@aniel.nours.eu>
References:  <20210922083645.4vnoajyvwq6wfhdf@aniel.nours.eu>

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> On 22 Sep 2021, at 10:36, Baptiste Daroussin <bapt@freebsd.org> wrote:
>=20
> Hello,
>=20
> TL;DR: this is not a proposal to deorbit csh from base!!!

(=E2=80=A6)

> Recently our sh(1) has receive update to make it more user friendly in
> interactive mode:
> * command completion (thanks pstef@)
> * improvement in the emacs mode, to make it behave by default like =
other shells
> * improvement in the vi mode (in particular the vi edit to respect =
$EDITOR)
> * support for history as described by POSIX.
>=20
> This makes it a usable shell by default, which is why I would like to =
propose to
> make it the default shell for root starting FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE (not =
MFCed)

My one concern is this: what is the impact of these usability =
improvements to sh on its usage in scripts?

I can imagine that there is merit to having a separate shell that is =
optimised for scriptability and script performance and having a =
different shell for user interaction. It seems to me the former was a =
primary purpose of sh? How much =E2=80=9Cweight=E2=80=9D did it gain in =
becoming more user friendly and how will that impact script performance?

I=E2=80=99ve been using FreeBSD with some frequency since 2.2.5 or so, =
so I am used enough to getting csh as root shell to not be able to see =
the problem that this change is trying to solve. Call me biased.

My purpose is just to throw in a different point of view here, I=E2=80=99m=
 not a big sh script user myself (I think I wrote less than a dozen over =
the years), this is not something for me to judge.

Alban Hertroys
--
There is always an exception to always.







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