Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!seismo!mcnc!gatech!gitpyr!robert From: robert@gitpyr.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: \"special\" shells a security hole? Message-ID: <3088@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> Date: Thu, 12-Feb-87 11:22:37 EST Article-I.D.: gitpyr.3088 Posted: Thu Feb 12 11:22:37 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 13-Feb-87 19:50:08 EST References: <3953@brl-adm.ARPA> <2590002@hpisod2.HP> Reply-To: robert@gitpyr.UUCP (Robert Viduya) Organization: Office of Computing Services, Georgia Tech Lines: 28 >gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) ) (gwyn@brl.arpa, <5615@brl-smoke.ARPA>): > In article <3063@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> robert@gitpyr.UUCP (Robert Viduya) writes: > >Just include "SHELL=/bin/sh" near the beginning of the makefile. > > The problem is, you HAVE to do this or you run the risk of having > the Makefile break. "Make" has no business providing variable > semantics for Makefiles dependent on the user's environment. I > suppose the original reason for this in Augmented Make was to > permit redefining CC for cross-compilation, etc. without having > to edit zillions of Makefiles. Too bad SHELL is honored too. I disagree completely. Adding "SHELL=/bin/sh" is an extremely trivial sacrifice to do compared to the flexibility it gives. The Bourne shell is not, nor should ever be considered as, the be-all-and-end-all of all shells. If I want to use Korn shell constructs in my Makefile, then there ought to be a general, clean way of doing it, such as "SHELL=/bin/ksh". Putting "/bin/ksh -c " on every command line in the Makefile is an ugly kludge. If Joe User down the hall only knows how to write csh shell scripts and wants to do something more than just sequential command execution in a Makefile (such as loops), he doesn't have to learn how to use the Bourne shell to do so. robert -- Robert Viduya robert@pyr.ocs.gatech.edu Office of Computing Services (404) 894-4660 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia 30332