Bug#275140: Redirections and noclobber

[Julian Gilbey <jdg@polya.uklinux.net>]

On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 08:39:17PM -0500, nils wrote:
> So in sum, I have two questions/unknowns:
> Q1: Does Debian have a policy on assumptions on the
>   environment that packaging scripts can make?
> Q2: Regardless of policy, do many packaging scripts in fact
>   make such assupmitions?

I once discussed this with Thomas Esser.  He told me very clearly that
I should not be messing around with the environment for scripts: they
can reasonably expect a default shell to behave in a default way, with
the only possible changed settings being appropriate environment
variables relevant to scripts.

So I would say that this is an answer to Q1 which extends well beyond
Debian, and that the answer to Q2 is yes, and many, many scripts on
your whole system make similar assumptions.

So final exhortation: noclobber should be restricted to interactive
shells, as should shell aliases, setting $PS1 and other such stuff.

And maybe either close this bug or mark wontfix.

   Julian