Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!montnaro
From: montnaro@spyder.crd.ge.com (Skip Montanaro)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Bug in HP's /bin/sh?
Message-ID: <MONTNARO.90Feb8142952@spyder.crd.ge.com>
Date: 8 Feb 90 19:29:52 GMT
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Reply-To: montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com (Skip Montanaro)
Organization: GE Corporate Research & Development, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 71


The following short Bourne shell script works fine under SunOS 4.0.3 and
Stellix 2.0, but fails under HPUX 6.5.

----------
#!/bin/sh

dbg () {
    echo "$@" 1>&2
}

catfile () {
    dbg \>scanlog
    cat $@
    dbg \<scanlog
}

catfile $0
----------

On the Stellar and Sun, executing the above script yields:

----------
% ./foo
>scanlog
#!/bin/sh

dbg () {
    echo "$@" 1>&2
}

catfile () {
    dbg \>scanlog
    cat $@
    dbg \<scanlog
}

catfile $0
<scanlog
%
----------

On the HP, it yields:

----------
% ./foo
>scanlog
cat: cannot open >scanlog
<scanlog
----------

Apparently there is only a single argument vector shared by functions under
HP's version of /bin/sh, so calling a function from within another function
ruins the argument vector to the first. Is this fixed in 7.0? The workaround
is to save the argument vector in a separate variable:

----------
catfile () {
    argv="$@"
    dbg \>scanlog
    set $argv
    cat $@
    dbg \<scanlog
}
----------

Unfortunately, this isn't too general. Any other ideas?

Thx,
--
Skip (montanaro@crdgw1.ge.com)