Xref: utzoo comp.sys.pyramid:310 comp.unix.wizards:14496
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!stan!dce
From: dce@stan.UUCP (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pyramid,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Is SVR2 /bin/sh backwards compatible to v7?
Message-ID: <384@salgado.stan.UUCP>
Date: 3 Feb 89 17:16:08 GMT
References: <165@apmpyr.nzapmb.co.nz> <57653@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Reply-To: dce@salgado.UUCP (David Elliott)
Followup-To: comp.sys.pyramid
Organization: Solbourne Computer Inc., Longmont, Colorado
Lines: 40

In article <57653@pyramid.pyramid.com> csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes:
>In article <165@apmpyr.nzapmb.co.nz> pgfdp@nzapmb.co.nz (Paul Fox ) writes:
>>Does anyone see a problem with simply _replacing_ the UCB /bin/sh (i.e. the
>>one called /.ucbbin/sh) with the AT&T shell (the one called /.attbin/sh)?
>
>This may actually work, if only because most of the shell scripts in BSD are
>pretty straight-forward. The differences in the System V shell I am aware of
>are:
(differences deleted)

There is one other item that bites people.  The SVR2 shell added the
ability to indent text read in using <<.

That is, you can say

	cat <<-EOF
		data
		...
	EOF

and it works as if it were

	cat <<EOF
	data
	...
	EOF

The problem is that a number of users got into the habit of using
termination strings beginning with -, as in

	cat <<-E-O-F-
	...
	-E-O-F-

This breaks without any kind of warning.  It still boggles me as
to why the implementors chose the legal '-' instead of an illegal
character, such as '#'.

-- 
David Elliott		...!pyramid!boulder!stan!dce