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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Korn Shell
Message-ID: <5694@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 20-Mar-87 15:38:34 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.5694
Posted: Fri Mar 20 15:38:34 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Mar-87 01:49:23 EST
References: <580@csun.UUCP> <5680@brl-smoke.ARPA> <2201@ptsfa.UUCP> <730@hoqax.UUCP> <15224@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 13
Keywords: Korn shell ksh aliases parameters

>>Why can't aliases and functions be exported like shell variables?

Actually, the 8th Edition UNIX shell supported functions in the
environment.  I considered it when integrating shells into the BRL
Bourne shell, but decided it was neither necessary nor sufficient,
and it definitely breaks existing binaries that expect nothing but
NAME=VALUE format for environment entries.

An $ENV file (or equivalent per-interactive-shell startup file)
involves a similar amount of work as parsing the environment, so
it is acceptable for static global definition of shell things.
However, the environment would be better for dynamic things, if
its space weren't so limited.