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Re: [PATCH] latest ash has broken 'echo' command



Marek Habersack wrote:
> 
> * Michael Stone said:
> > On Fri, Oct 22, 1999 at 09:19:41AM +1000, Herbert Xu wrote:
> > > The thing is even POSIX allows this behaviour if I read Sven's
> > > message correctly.  The options are strictly implementation defined,
> > > so that means you cannot rely on them in a portable script.
> >
> > What's your point? Who cares if people can rely on them for a portable
> > script--they just want the behavior they had last week. We're building
> > a distribution, not an ivory tower.
> Exactly. I don't give a damn whether my script will work on Solaris,
> Ultrix, Someix - I want it to work on a GNU system. It did, it doesn't
> now.

You're not even using a GNU shell -- why should you expect it to perform
in a GNU manner?

If you want to depend on nonstandard features (which -e, -n, and --
certainly are), use a shell that provides the necessary features. /bin/sh
is supposed to be at the very least, POSIX-compliant. H. Xu takes the
position that /bin/sh should be a _strictly_ conformant shell -- I don't
necessarily agree, but I am quite sure I don't disagree with that
assertion.

/bin/sh may provide the features you want. it also may not, since they
are not required. You know that bash provides the functionality you want,
so use it. Only strictly-conformant scripts should be permitted to use
#!/bin/sh, and scripts that use nonstandard parameters to echo are
nonconformant.

-- 
| Jeff Teunissen -- President, Dusk To Dawn Computing -- d2deek@pmail.net
| Disclaimer: I am my employer, so anything I say goes for me too.     :)
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| Specializing in Debian GNU/Linux	   http://dusknet.dhis.org/~deek/


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