On Thu, Mar 30, 2006 at 06:18:43PM +0200, Stepan Kasal wrote:
> @@ -12178,7 +12190,8 @@
> @item @command{basename}
> @c ---------------------
> @prindex @command{basename}
> -Not all hosts have a working @command{basename}, and you should instead
> +Not all hosts have @command{basename} available, and some mishandle the
> +corner case @samp{basename /} (e.g., Solaris), thus you should instead
> use @code{AS_BASENAME} (@pxref{Programming in M4sh}). For example:
>
> @example
> @@ -12186,6 +12199,10 @@
> file=`AS_BASENAME(["$file"])` # This is more portable.
> @end example
With you adding an example to the documentation of AS_BASENAME, this example is
now duplicative. Consider deleting it.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> +Do not use @command{basename} to strip a suffix from the file name, use
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] instead.
This is a sound strategy recommendation, but it does not reflect any additional
limitation of `basename'. Please delete this or rework the section to
incorporate it in that light, perhaps along these lines:
Some hosts lack `basename' (example?) or provide an implementation that
mishandles `/' (Solaris). Use `AS_BASENAME' to portably extract the last
component of a file name. Use `expr' to remove a suffix from a string.
I'm not sure that wording I suggest is any clearer. I think it's important that
we somehow avoid creating a myth that some basename implementations lack support
for suffix removal.
