Dear sponsors, mentors, maintainers,
Introduction:
Please be aware that although bash is currently the default /bin/sh there's a
release goal for Lenny to make dash the default /bin/sh[1].
This release goal affects every single /bin/sh script and every single
makefile not defining a different SHELL. Although they are 'affected',
everything is ok unless 'bashisms'[2] are used.
There is a tool called 'checkbashisms' which is shipped by the 'devscripts'
package, which is able to find several kind of bashisms in /bin/sh scripts
and makefiles (since version 2.0.26 and above when using -f, but version from
SVN[3] is recommended). This is the tool being used to generate reports for
the goal's mass bug filing.
With the recent improvements made to checkbashisms a lot of bashisms were
found in makefiles such as debian/rules. Based on the last archive wide check
there are about 312 (spread between 306 packages) bashisms in debian/rules.
Although the number of false positives when using checkbashisms on makefiles
is higher than the number of false positives when checking /bin/sh scripts,
there are still way too many bashisms around.
Request:
I would like to request everybody to check for bashisms in the packages they:
prepare, review, and upload.
lintian is currently not able to check for bashisms in files other than
maintainer scripts (debian/rules excluded), so it is not as easy as
saying 'just check with the latest lintian'.
How to do it:
I've written a script called checkbashisms-in-package.sh[4] which can be used
to easily check for bashisms in a .deb once checkbashisms is in $PATH.
Please be aware that this script only looks for bashisms in some directories
and not _everywhere_, which means there might be some bashisms left in other
places (suggestions and patches welcome!).
Examples:
Running checkbashisms-in-package.sh without any argument will display:
$ ./checkbashisms-in-package.sh
checkbashisms-in-package.sh foo.deb [bar.deb [...]]
Simple script to run checkbashisms on files inside a .deb, v0.0.1
Copyright 2008 Raphael Geissert <atomo64@gmail.com>
To check for bashisms in a give .deb (or several .debs):
$ ./checkbashisms-in-package.sh kopete_3.5.9-1_i386.deb
Processing kopete_3.5.9-1_i386.deb...
possible bashism in ./usr/bin/kopete_latexconvert.sh line 225 (let ...):
let OPTIND=$OPTIND+1
done
To check for bashisms in debian/rules use:
$ checkbashisms -f -debian/rules
possible bashism in debian/rules line 740 (brace expansion):
builddir-$(TARGET) {configure,build,install}-$(TARGET)-stamp
*Note* that --force/-f is required for checkbashisms to check for bashisms in
makefiles.
I hope that this will make people more aware of bashisms and help the release
goal.
If you want more information about dash as /bin/sh, you can read:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2008/01/msg00189.html
Fixing bashisms is pretty simple, you can get some ideas at:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DashAsBinSh
If the bashism you found is not there you can always ask in d-devel@l.d.o, or
even here in -mentors.
Other ways to help include:
* Providing patches for the goal-dash bugs[5].
* Switching your /bin/sh to dash!
(apt-get install dash && dpkg-reconfigure dash))
* Helping others to fix their bashisms
* Spread the word! bashisms are not allowed by policy.
[1]
http://release.debian.org/lenny/goals.txt
[2]
'bashism': in the context of the release goal a bashism is any kind of shell
feature not required by the Debian Policy section 10.4.
[3]
svn://svn.debian.org/svn/devscripts/trunk/scripts/checkbashisms.pl
[4]
http://git.debian.org/?p=users/atomo64-guest/misc-devscripts.git;a=blob_plain;f=checkbashisms-in-package.sh;hb=master
[5]
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=debian-release@lists.debian.org&tag=goal-dash
Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
--
Atomo64 - Raphael
Please avoid sending me Word, PowerPoint or Excel attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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