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

[Clint Adams <schizo@debian.org>]

> One interpretation would prohibit the use of test -a; but would also
> prohibit the use of "debconf" and many many other things.
> 
> The other interpretation (mine, in fact) would allow test -a, in which
> case there are people running around filing bogus bug reports.  But
> this interpretation does not serve the important goals of Policy
> section 10.4, which is why I filed bug 267142, to attempt to find a
> way to satisfy the goals of 10.4 cleanly.
> 
> Someone else thought this meant that posh shouldn't buildin test,
> which in my opinion is entirely irrelevant.

I wouldn't mind if Debian prevented you from using "test -a" altogether,
but you are not thusly prevented, and I don't argue that you should be
prevented.

I do think it's a violation of 10.4 for you to use in a #!/bin/sh script
"test -a" without a path prepended.

I think you would be exercising poor judgment either by changing your
shebang line to specify a specific shell with a "test" builtin or by
prepending a path to "test" in order to use "test -a".

So I don't see a practical problem here.  Brace expansion is greatly
more useful than "test -a".