>"Portable" shell scripts CANNOT use these POSIX.2001-mandated command >line syntaxes; there are still operating systems in wide use that do >not implement them. Thus, for instance, config.sub/config.guess will >continue to use the old syntax for the foreseeable future, as will >gcc's Makefiles. > >POSIX.2001's removal of the "obsolete" syntaxes is brain damaged and >coreutils MUST NOT follow suit.
<aol> What Zack said. </aol> For that matter, some of the syntax removals are going to throw users pretty severely as well. tail -20 doesn't work? diff -c3 doesn't work? This is an example of 'standards' rushing ahead of standard usage. :-P >I would encourage y'all to address >this, not by backing down glibc's _POSIX2_VERSION number, but by >patching coreutils to support the old syntaxes again - unconditionally >and without warnings. And then beat the upstream maintainers of >coreutils upside the head until they take said patch. Do the same for >any other shell utility that has been infected with this brain damage. > >zw <aol> Yeah! </aol> Go ahead and back down the _POSIX2_VERSION number as well, though. :-P No reason for Debian to claim to support a version of POSIX which removes standard usages, and I suppose it's more honest to not claim to be compliant when you not only aren't, but don't want to be. :-P -- Nathanael Nerode <neroden at gcc.gnu.org> http://home.twcny.rr.com/nerode/neroden/fdl.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
