Is SVR2 /bin/sh backwards compatible to v7?
Paul Fox
pgfdp at nzapmb.co.nz
Wed Jan 25 09:25:28 AEST 1989
We're running a Pyramid dual universe system (i.e. we have both
the AT&T and the Berkeley worlds, complete and intact -- no
modifications or enhancements to either). For various reasons,
our development and our applications all run in the "ucb" universe,
so they see the Berkeley filesystem contents. When writing
shell scripts and makefiles, it would be nice if we could make use
of the bug fixes and enhancements that have gone into /bin/sh since
v7, that is, be able to run the AT&T /bin/sh instead of the UCB /bin/sh.
(Examples: shell functions, proper behaviour of failing "if" statements
in makefiles)
Of course, one can do this on a per-script basis with:
#!/bin/att /bin/sh
which flops you into the other universe before running the script.
However, we don't usually want the universe to change. So another
method is:
#!/.attbin/sh
which gets us the AT&T executable in the current (UCB) universe. That's
okay (except for aesthetics), but it still doesn't fix the problem for
make, which of course always invokes "/bin/sh" literally.
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)? Is the SVR2 shell sufficiently backwards
compatible with the v7 (i.e. Berkeley) shell to allow this without
breaking anything? Offhand I can't think of anything that has
been broken, but can anyone else? We'll probably try it, but
could save some effort if forewarned of problems...
thanks...
Paul Fox, New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, Wellington, NZ
pgfdp at apmpyr.nzapmb.co.nz
p.s. If I'm wrong about the Berkeley /bin/sh being equivalent to the
v7 /bin/sh, feel free to correct me, but only if you can also offer
some insight into my problem...
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