Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!scs
From: scs@athena.mit.edu (Steve Summit)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: ksh incompatabilities with sh?
Summary: dbx aliases?
Message-ID: <5812@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 17 Jun 88 03:48:43 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: scs@adam.pika.mit.edu (Steve Summit)
Lines: 21

The most stupefying ksh imcompatibility I ever saw, which I
submit for amusement value only because I don't have many
relevant details any more, was that dbx aliases didn't seem to
work when dbx was invoked under ksh.  The same dbx appeared to
work correctly when invoked from sh or csh.  This is, of course,
prima facie absurd, and the only possible mechanism by which the
choice of shell could make this kind of difference would be via
something in the environment.

It should be noted, however, that the Korn shell (at least the
versions I've used) does _n_o_t keep the environment alphabetized,
as do the other shells; this is a documented inconsistency and is
defended by observing that the environment is not guaranteed to
be sorted, and that programs which depend on its being so
therefore don't deserve to work.

Did anyone else ever have any problems with dbx and ksh?  Or was
I hallucinating?

                                            Steve Summit
                                            scs@adam.pika.mit.edu