Bug#288182: Why do we not reset IFS?
Attila Kinali <attila@kinali.ch> schrieb:
> On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:23:39 +0100
> Frank Küster <frank@debian.org> wrote:
>
>> Using dash as /bin/sh and working in an
>> eterm lead to the problem last time I encountered it; probably if you
>> switch to a real console or point /bin/sh to /bin/bash, you can
>> configure tetex-bin.
>
> That's exactly what i'm doing. Eterm + dash. running apt-get upgrade in
> an xterm fixed it.
>
> Could someone explain me, how the used terminal emulation affects a
> shell script ?
eterm marks IFS as exported, if it is set (which is not a bug). And dash
respects the setting of IFS if it is in its environment, while bash (and
it seems most other shells) simply ignores the setting and starts with
the default. Both kinds of behavior are POSIXly correct, unfortunately.
So it is still our bug to not reset IFS; not using eterm is just a
workaround.
Regards, Frank
--
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer
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