Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!rex!ginosko!uunet!cbmvax!grr
From: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: Ultrix 3.0 changed basename(1)
Message-ID: <7769@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 29 Aug 89 00:14:50 GMT
References: <1989Aug25.144051.11467@acd4.UUCP> <3074@solo4.cs.vu.nl>
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 29

In article <3074@solo4.cs.vu.nl> maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) writes:
> mjb@acd4.UUCP ( Mike Bryan          ) writes:
> \It seems basename() now does some limited regular expression handling.
> \Therefore, the command "basename /vmunix .x" will produce "vmun",
> \rather than the expected "vmunix".  [...]
> 
> To whoever made this change: the abovementioned behavior is COMPLETELY
> DISTURBED!  It's like: in Ultrix 3.0 the kernel will reside in /bin/cat!
> Use /etc/fsck to catenate files. :-(

Perhaps you haven't looked closely at the manual page entry for the System V
implementation of basename - for better or worse, the second argument is
interpreted as part of a expr(1) regular expression, with just the behavior
described above.  Whether such a wonderful feature should be ported to Ultrix
is, of course, a different argument.

The new implementation has other problems with quoting of arguments, which
were reported to Software Support via DSIN around July 11 or 12, though I
didn't request an SPR - in my case the workaround was obvious: just retrieve
a working version of basename from the Ultrix 2.x release tape...

There is also a funny error in the manpage, where it says: deletes any
prefix end in a  --> backslash <--.   Whoever did this basename hack just
wasn't having a good day, eh?

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr@uunet.uu.net
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)