Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!pyramid!prls!mips!dce
From: dce@mips.COM (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: command line options
Message-ID: <2075@quacky.mips.COM>
Date: 24 Apr 88 21:31:31 GMT
References: <2414@zyx.UUCP> <8039@elsie.UUCP> <7628@brl-smoke.ARPA> <143@gsg.UUCP> <7634@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1864@sugar.UUCP> <7746@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: dce@quacky.UUCP (David Elliott)
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 30

In article <7746@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>In article <1864@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>>Speaking of the bourne-again shell (System V shell), how do you get a shell
>>function inherited by subshells?
>
>In the 8th Edition UNIX shell, you simply export them via the environment.

How do shell scripts handle this situation?  For example, assume that the
user has the function

	rm() {
		myownrm -i ${1+"$@"}
	}

where "myownrm" moves files into a "garbage can" directory.  What happens
when my shell script says 'rm "$Tempfile"'?

Do I have to do "unset" (or otherwise undefine) each name that I use,
just in case the user has a corresponding function?  Sure, I could use
paths, but that gets extra painful when you get tricky with functions
(such as when I define things like "chmod" to be "echo chmod $mode $file"
when the user gives the -n option to a script, and leave it undefined
otherwise).

I can't believe that this feature would be added without a way to stop
it from breaking things.  Then again, the importation and use of $SHELL
by default in make is pretty stupid...

-- 
David Elliott		dce@mips.com  or  {ames,prls,pyramid,decwrl}!mips!dce