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Re: [LUG] Problem with Bash script on Ubuntu

 

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 12:38:29PM +0000, Simon Waters wrote:
> Alan Pope wrote:
> > (and it's not a bash script, it's a shell script. By default /bin/sh pints 
> > to _dash_ not _bash_ on Ubuntu).
> 
> Whose bright idea was that? I see the Ubuntu brainstorm has a proposal
> to change it back, sounds like a sensible idea. Talk about pointless
> forking in distros.....

Well, it's an option in Debian: if you install the dash package you're
asked whether you want /bin/sh to be dash or bash. Debian policy is that
all scripts should work with dash or any other posix shell, not require
bash - unless they explicitly point to /bin/bash not /bin/sh.

Dash has the advantage of being faster; using it apparently speeds up
booting by several seconds, though I can't find any specific figures.

FWIW, I've been using dash on several machines for years now, and I've
only hit one bug caused by a package assuming sh was bash. On the other
had, Henry's problem is completely unrelated to whether sh is bash or
dash...

-- 
Benjamin M. A'Lee || mail: bma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
web: http://subvert.org.uk/~bma/ || gpg: 0xBB6D2FA0
"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind." --
Albert Einstein

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