Bug#267142: debian-policy: Sections 10.4 and 6.1 are inconsistent (Posix doesn't say what you think it says)

[Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net>]

Wouter Verhelst <wouter@grep.be> writes:

> There's also,
> 
> OPTION 5: Change section 10.4 to require the use of full pathnames when
> non-Posix extensions are being used in commands; remove the "no
> pathnames on commands" direction in section 6.1, but do discourage its
> use whenever possible.

Under one interpretation, this option doesn't work; under the other,
it is as bad as option 4.

First, if you mean "when non-Posix extensions are being used in
Posix-specified commands" (like "test"), then it doesn't work, because
a shell might well override "debconf" with a builtin, as I described.

But if you mean "when non-Posix extension are being used, or non-Posix
commands" then (because almost everything is non-Posix) we end up with
all the brittleness that section 6.1 is trying to avoid, and we lose
all the performance benefits of shell builtins (when those builtins
are well-behaved).

Perhaps I have not really understood how this option works, however.

Thomas