Bug#264241: Some corrections regardings statements in this bug

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@fs.tum.de>]

On Mon, Aug 16, 2004 at 11:28:21PM +0200, Florent Rougon wrote:
> > But following this argumentation, shouldn't maintainers simply put a
> > #!/bin/bash at the top of their scripts instead of removing 
> > bash-specific features?
> 
> They are free to do so as far as I am concerned. However, two advantages
> of sticking to POSIX shell constructs (when it does not lead to ugly
> contortions) and using /bin/sh are:
>   - there are POSIX-compliant shells in Debian that are said to be
>     faster than bash (cf. the package description for dash);
 
The shell speed is hardly the major factor in maintainer scripts speed.

>   - there are POSIX-compliant shells in Debian that are smaller than
>     bash and as a consequence, some people using embedded systems would
>     like to be able to use them exclusively on these systems, where they
>     could delete bash to save space.

bash is essential.
A Debian system without bash is therefore by definition broken.
Making an essential package non-essential is basically impossible.

If an embedded system is that space limited, it would use a small system 
based on busybox instead of a Debian installation.

> Florent

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed