Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!ginosko!uunet!acd4!mjb
From: mjb@acd4.UUCP ( Mike Bryan          )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: Ultrix 3.0 changed basename(1)
Message-ID: <1989Aug29.132003.23389@acd4.UUCP>
Date: 29 Aug 89 13:20:03 GMT
References: <1989Aug25.144051.11467@acd4.UUCP> <3074@solo4.cs.vu.nl> <7769@cbmvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: mjb@acd4.UUCP ( Mike Bryan          )
Organization: Applied Computing Devices, Inc., Terre Haute, IN
Lines: 34

In article <7769@cbmvax.UUCP> grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) 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".  [...]
>> 
>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.

Well, maybe the manual page entry says that, but looking at Issue 2 of
the SVID, Volume 2, page 31, it says:

"The command basename deletes any prefix ending in / and the suffix
(if present in string), and prints the result on the standard output."

Period.  Nothing about REs at all.  DEC has told me on more than one
occasion that a piece of software "works that way because that is the
behaviour defined in the SVID."  If some System V implementer has
changed the functionality of basename(1) in a manner incompatible with
the SVID, who is right/wrong?  Furthermore, if DEC wants System V
compatibility for Ultrix, then should they conform to the SVID, or
should they conform to the latest version of AT&T System V?

For the record, I have submitted an SPR to DEC, but have not yet
received a response.


-- 
Mike Bryan, Applied Computing Devices, 100 N Campus Dr, Terre Haute IN 47802
Phone: 812/232-6051  FAX: 812/231-5280  Home: 812/232-0815
UUCP: uunet!acd4!mjb  ARPA: acd4!mjb@uunet.uu.net
"Did you make mankind after we made you?" --- XTC, "Dear God"