Path: utzoo!utgpu!tmsoft!dptcdc!dpmizar!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Echo
Message-ID: <9128@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 9 Dec 88 23:30:15 GMT
References: <6557@june.cs.washington.edu> <949@riddle.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 13

In article <949@riddle.UUCP> domo@riddle.UUCP (Dominic Dunlop) writes:
>    In release 4.0, the echo command has been enhanced to support both the
>    SunOS and UNIX System V version of the command.  echo automatically
>    selects between the two definitions according to the value of the PATH
>    variable.  The UNIX System V definition is the default definition.
>    However, if the PATH contains the entry /usr/ucb, and that entry comes
>    before /usr/bin, then the SunOS version of echo is selected.

What a botch this is!  Nobody I know of puts /usr/ucb before /usr/bin
even on native BSD systems.  I wouldn't risk that in shell scripts,
either, so in effect they have added a mechanism that will be of no
practical use.  And, there is STILL no way to disable \-escape mapping
in the System V environment.