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Date:	Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:29:26 -0600
From:	Eric Blake <ebb9 AT byu DOT net>
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Subject:	Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] [1.7] New package: dash-0.5.5.1-1
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According to Edward Lam on 7/9/2009 7:12 AM:
> Eric Blake wrote:
>> So for now, there are no plans of replacing /bin/sh with dash.
> 
> Incidentally, I copy ash.exe over to sh.exe every time for performance.
> AFAICT, /bin/sh defaulted to bash (from ash) back in the bash 3.0 series
> to be more "similar to Linux distributions". It took me quite some head
> scratching at the time to determine why my "make clean" would take ~2
> times slower.

ash is not POSIX-compliant.  It may be fast, but it is so old and broken
that it caused more problems than the apparent speedups that it might
offer.  dash is a different story - it aims for POSIX compliance, so we
might reach the stage where dash is reliable enough to use instead of bash
for /bin/sh (particularly since I manage both packages - it would be a
very easy transition for me to make).  But that day won't even be on my
radar until after dash supports LINENO, since making the switch now would
just slow down configure scripts as they waste time finding out how to run
bash instead of /bin/sh to get LINENO support.

> 
> Changing /bin/sh to dash of course else will now probably cause the
> headaches that Ubuntu users have experienced leading to proposals to
> change /bin/sh back to bash:
>     http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/2225/

Yes, there are a lot of bash-isms out there.  And several years ago, when
we made the switch of /bin/sh being bash, it was because bash was the most
popular Linux-provided /bin/sh.  But these days, you are right that more
and more distros are starting to provide dash instead of bash as /bin/sh,
so I have no objections to an eventual switch on that ground.

And if you really want a fun time at flushing out non-portable shell
constructs, use posh.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             ebb9 AT byu DOT net
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