Re: Proposed new POSIX sh policy
On Wed, Nov 15, 2006 at 10:46:51AM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr> writes:
>
> > Hard-coding path is frowned upon theses days and there is no standard
> > way to disable a shell built-in, so in practice we are actively
> > prevented from using coreutils test and thus coreutils test features. So
> > the question is not merely what should be the default.
>
> Who is arguing that you can't use /usr/bin/test when you explicitly need a
> feature of coreutils test? The relevant Policy section says:
>
> Programs called from maintainer scripts should not normally have a
> path prepended to them. Before installation is started, the package
> management system checks to see if the programs ldconfig,
> start-stop-daemon, install-info, and update-rc.d can be found via the
> PATH environment variable. Those programs, and any other program that
> one would expect to be on the PATH, should thus be invoked without an
> absolute pathname. Maintainer scripts should also not reset the PATH,
> though they might choose to modify it by prepending or appending
> package-specific directories. These considerations really apply to all
> shell scripts.
>
> That's a "should normally," not a must, and this sort of situation is
> seems to me to be exactly why it says "should normally" instead of "must."
> The reason for not prepending a path is that it's pointless and may create
> problems later if the binary moves. The first is not true in this case,
> and I don't think the second is strong enough by itself.
>
> In fact, if you squint the right way, that paragraph gives a sort of
> blessing to using an absolute path in this situation, since coreutils test
> is not quite "any other program that one would expect to be on the PATH"
> simply because in this case the shell isn't going to *look* at the PATH.
Of course, any scripts that may be run before mounting /usr must not use
/usr/bin/test...
Regards: David
--
/) David Weinehall <tao@debian.org> /) Rime on my window (\
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ // Diamond-white roses of fire //
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