/bin/sh != /bin/bash

[Richard Kilgore <rkilgore@ece.utexas.edu>]

I'm not actually a debian developer: ignore me if this fact
bothers you.

I usually keep /bin/sh a link to /bin/ash, because startup is a
little faster and it uses less memory.  I also choose to do so
because there has been some problem with bash lately that causes
it not to accept command lines formed by Netscape when it tries
to launch external programs.

Specific reasons aside, I submit that some people (maybe more
than a few) would like to use some other bourne shell cousin
besides bash as their default /bin/sh.

The Debian setup is not friendly to people who would.  I have
always had to deal with headaches changing the little #!/bin/sh
to #!/bin/bash at the top of dozens of script files in the Debian
distribution that assume /bin/sh is actually /bin/bash.  Even
more annoying, I recently noticed that dpkg-split actually spawns
/bin/sh with some kind of command sequence that assumes /bin/sh =
/bin/bash.  So everytime I want to install software I have to
change the damn link to temporarily point to /bin/bash and then
change it back (if I don't forget) when I'm done.

Seems to me that if you write a program that does't work with a
vanilla bourne shell anyway, then you shouldn't be calling
/bin/sh.  I can't think of a reason not to hard code /bin/bash.

   Any comments?

   - rick

-- 
Richard Kilgore                     |  rkilgore@ece.utexas.edu
Electrical & Computer Engineering   |  http://lore.ece.utexas.edu/~rkilgore/
The University of Texas at Austin   |  (512) 471-8011


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