Re: Proposed new POSIX sh policy
On Wed, Nov 15, 2006 at 10:50:40PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:15:14 -0800, Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> said:
>
> I would rather get away from this wording totally.
> ,----
> | "Shell scripts specifying /bin/sh as interpreter must only use POSIX
> | features, additionally, they may assume that echo -n .... . Also,
> | they may use test -a/o and the local directive in shell functions,
> | as long as .... If a shell script uses features beyond this set
> | listed, then the appropriate shell must be specified in the first
> | line of the script (e.g., #!/bin/bash) and the package must depend on
> | the package providing the shell (unless the shell package is marked
> | "Essential", as in the case of bash). "
> `----
>
> This does specify what the scripts may expect, but drops all
> wording from this section regarding what the policy expectation of
> /bin/sh is.
I am of two mind with that. On the positive side it removes the promise
to the users that the system works with _any_ POSIX-compliant /bin/sh, which
is something we never actively tested.
On the other hand, it more or less mandates that /bin/sh is /bin/bash
(because /bin/sh is not a config file, and baring policy authorization,
users are not supposed to change symlinks in /bin). This looks like a
regression a regression in user choice: I expect there are sufficiently
many Debian installation where /bin/sh is /bin/dash for us to claim
that /bin/sh pointing to /bin/dash is a supported and tested configuration.
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>
Imagine a large blue swirl here.
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