Re: Proposed new POSIX sh policy

[Bruce Sass <bmsass@shaw.ca>]

On Thu November 16 2006 11:06, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 04:14 -0700, Bruce Sass wro
>
> > AFAICT, "/bin/sh can be a symbolic link to any POSIX compatible
> > shell" does not really convey what Debian wants, it would be better
> > to state that, `only POSIX features should be used in Debian "sh"
> > scripts', followed by a list of exceptions (which would presumably
> > be a subset of those features in common use which exist in all
> > shells allowed to be "sh".)
>
> The problem is that "POSIX feature" is a meaningless term in this
> context.

I see your point.

> If "test -a" is not a POSIX feature (or any other random test
> arguments bandied about here), then so calling "debconf" is also not
> a POSIX feature, and for exactly the same reason: either might be
> overridden by a builtin.

"test" is included in the spec, so a script's use of "test" should be 
restricted to features included in the spec of "test" for the script to 
be compliant with the spec. "debconf" is not included in the spec, so 
use of it can not be non-compliant because it is impossible to not 
comply with something which doesn't exist.

So, maybe something alone the lines of:

The use of commands included in the spec must comply with the spec of 
those commands. 


- Bruce