Re: [PATCH] latest ash has broken 'echo' command
On Oct 24, Herbert Xu wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 23, 1999 at 02:11:11PM -0400, Raul Miller wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
> You miss the point completely. The issue here is whether our #!/bin/sh
> scripts should be POSIX compliant or not. If the answer is yes, the change
> in ash will be OK once our scripts are fixed. If the answer is no, nobody
> should use ash as /bin/sh because it won't be possible.
No, the issue is what behavior Debian systems (and other operating
systems based on the Linux kernel) expect "echo" to have. Judging
from the comments from the LSB list (and I think it's safe to assume
we want to comply with LSB, whether or not it's officially promulgated
yet), the -n and -e switches are expected to work in all
Bourne-compatible shells, both in LSB and by extension in Debian.
Now, if ash is not going to be compliant with LSB, and behave
differently from other Bourne-compatible shells, then we should not
use ash as an alternative for the standard Bourne-compatible shell
(/bin/sh). OTOH, since it's pretty obviously trivial to make ash an
acceptable alternative (by allowing and acting on the switches), there
is no good reason not to do so.
What I seem to be missing here is why we're going out of our way to
make ash behave differently from other Bourne-compatible shells in
Debian (since obviously it behaved consistently before).
Chris
--
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| Chris Lawrence | You have a computer. Do you have Linux? |
| <quango@watervalley.net> | http://www.linux-m68k.org/index.html |
| | |
| Grad Student, Pol. Sci. | Are you tired of politics as usual? |
| University of Mississippi | http://www.lp.org/ |
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