Re: Comments on the "Changing the default system shell" talk
On Sun, Jul 26 2009, Luk Claes wrote:
> Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
>> You say that dash is configurable as /bin/sh via debconf but in the
>> next sentence you say you want dash to ship a /bin/sh link to dash. So
>> the deconf thing is purely a temporary thing and goes away. There
>> won't be a choice left. Users will just get /bin/sh pointing to dash
>> period.
> ... by default, they can change it later on if they want to.
Err, this might be OK for new installations, but the potential
for breaking an existing system is high enough not to change /bin/sh
under it on an upgrade.
> A faster and smaller default system shell is important to a lot of our
> users.
I see this asserted a lot. I am pretty sure that the average
user very likely does not care. The embedded system folks certainly do
--- but I am not sure that the counter assertion that systems will
break if /bin/sh is changed under them do not equal in number the
people who benefit from small default system shell.
I think it is OK to start with dash as the default on new
installations, and to ask if people want to switch older ones. Forcing
the switch would be, in my opinion, buggy behaviour.
Pardon me if forcing the /bin/sh to point to dash on existing
machines is not the plan.
> The last thing we want is that people break their systems by not being
> careful enough. We made sure it will be easier to get rid of bash in
> the future while not going for the jump in the deep...
This sounds better.
manoj
--
interlard - vt., to intersperse; diversify Webster's New World
Dictionary Of The American Language
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
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