Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ateng!chip
From: chip@ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Perl scripts on systems without "#!"
Message-ID: <2568811E.264@ateng.com>
Date: 20 Nov 89 22:56:28 GMT
References: <255C7F44.171@ateng.com> <5935@cbnewsh.ATT.COM>
Organization: A T Engineering, Tampa, FL
Lines: 25

According to wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart):
>You asserted that systems which don't support #! support the
># => C shell convention.  Vanilla System V systems do not
>do either one, and are thus a major counterexample.

I stand corrected.

>On conventional System V systems, the C shell generally will assume
>initial # means C shell, but the Bourne Shell (and Korn Shell) follow
>correct syntax, which is that # is simply a Bourne-shell comment.

With that "correct syntax" remark, I see why the Organization: line of
the quoted article read "Committee to Insult the C Shell".  :-)

After discussion, it seems that a script can be identified in only one
portable way:

	A script with ":" as the first character
	   is always run by the Bourne shell.

Anything else is non-portable.  Am I right?
-- 
You may redistribute this article only to those who may freely do likewise.
Chip Salzenberg at A T Engineering;  <chip@ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip>
    "Did I ever tell you the Jim Gladding story about the binoculars?"