Hello. Geoff Clare via austin-group-l at The Open Group wrote in <Z_fkb-g6qxj_3lh_@localhost>: |Andrew Josey wrote, on 31 Mar 2025: |> |> I took an action to call for input on this item |> |> Bug 1915: clarification of 2.6.5 field splitting of 2.5.2 special \ |> parameter $* |> https://www.austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1915 |> We need the shell authors to decide on this item. |> 2025-03-27: AI Andrew: Ask shell developers for guidance on requirements. | |Andrew received a reply asking for clarification of what input we need. |This was discussed in today's teleconference, and I proposed the |following response, which it was agreed I should send to this list so |that the other shell authors also see it ... | |The only unspecified aspect of the expansion of unquoted $* is whether |empty fields are discarded before field splitting is performed. This |leads to an expectation that there would be two different behaviors |across conforming shells, but using the test script in Mantis bug 1915 |we have observed four different behaviors among shells whose behavior we |usually consider when investigating issues: one shared by dash, ksh93 |and yash; and one each from bash, mksh and ksh88. (See bugnotes 7123 and |7124.) | |So I think the question for the shell authors is can they reach a |consensus on which two behaviors are "right" (by which I mean they meet |user expectations, not that they behave as currently described in the |standard), or do they think more than two of the observed behaviors are
Well, only to add that bash, NetBSD k?sh and possibly more behave exactly "as currently described in the standard", except for, as you say, the special parameter $*, they use "the quoted variant of $*" as a source for field splitting, instead of generating "one field for each positional parameter that is set", and splitting the result of that. |valid? | |Once we decide which behaviors should be allowed, we can then start to |work on how to change the wording in the standard to match. --End of <Z_fkb-g6qxj_3lh_@localhost> --steffen | |Der Kragenbaer, The moon bear, |der holt sich munter he cheerfully and one by one |einen nach dem anderen runter wa.ks himself off |(By Robert Gernhardt)
