[cas] > on every non-linux machine i have to use, the first thing i do is > download and compile all the GNU tools including tar. i then change > the PATH setting to include /usr/local/bin/gnu at the start.
I used to do that, but then I got burned by 'df'. Debugging that one involved wading through pages and pages of very poorly written vendor ksh scripts, so I guess I learned my lesson. (In defense of GNU fileutils, I don't think I've seen any two Unix versions of df with compatible output either. The HP-UX 11 output is truly, ahem, interesting.) I've also been hit once trying to use bash as a root login shell. Some scripts that come with proprietary software actually don't have #! lines at the top, they just assume ksh. Oops. Yes, for the most part you can drop GNU utilities right in. But I no longer put them in front of the path for root or other system-oriented accounts. Peter