Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!mks.com!eric
From: eric@mks.com (Eric Gisin)
Subject: shell bugs
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 91 23:32:10 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.233210.7410@mks.com>

The \ character does not work in the IFS variable.
The System Vr3.2 and Sun OS 4 shells have this bug.
The V7 shell did not. It was probably introduced in the 8-bit clean version.
The following demonstrates the bug.

	# echo arguments, one per line
	args() {
		for _ do echo_r "$_"; done
	}
	# echo without SysV expansions
	echo_r() {
		cat <<- .
		$*
		.
	}
	IFS='\'
	thing='a\b\\c'
	args $thing
-->	a\b\\c

In System V/386 r3.2, the shell nices all background jobs.
This is unacceptable for non-interactive shells.