Re: [PATCH] latest ash has broken 'echo' command
On Sat, Oct 23, 1999 at 09:26:39AM +1000, Herbert Xu wrote:
> Why do you care?
Here's my take on this issue:
(1) POSIX.
POSIX says you should use printf for new scripts but that echo
has not been made obsolete because it's in such widespread use.
(2) SUS.
In general the linux community seems to treat SUS as advise
rather than as a "must meet" standard.
(3) ash.
We have a large user base, some of whom have come to rely on
the current behavior of ash.
In other words, ash should not have changed its behavior. The changed
behavior doesn't solve any real problem but it does break working user
systems. [Specifically, anyone who has set up ash as /bin/sh.]
If we don't want user systems to break then, since we've not yet released
a versions of debian with this changed behavior from ash, we should not
revert its handling of echo -n.
On the other hand, if we want user systems to break then we should stay
with this new feature of ash. [In this case we should also change our
social contract to match this desire.]
--
Raul
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