On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:36:24PM -0500, Dan wrote: > Jeremy Chadwick([EMAIL PROTECTED])@2008.11.15 18:32:39 -0800: > > > Problem solved. Why doesn't FreeBSD ship bash and other shells besides > > > the `sh' linked statically is beyond me. It wouldn't break ports, would > > > it? > > > > It does break ports. Very, very badly. I know because I've personally > > attempted replacing /bin/sh with bash as a "I have a weekend to spare" > > project. > > You misunderstand. I do not suggest replacing the standard shell with > bash, I suggest that the shells available in FreeBSD, even through ports > to be linked statically so they can be used for rescue and recovery. > If the default make instructions told to compile statically, it wouldn't > break the ports.
You're right -- I'm still not understanding. So let me cover the bases here: 1) The entire ports and FreeBSD build system (see: world) rely heavily on /bin/sh-isms and do not work with bash. bash being compiled statically will not solve these problems. 2) Changing the root users' shell is not recommended. There are a lot of reasons for this, but as mentioned, the main one is single-user scenarios (where /usr hasn't been mounted yet, thus /usr/local/bin/bash is not available -- and if it's installed as /bin/bash, the libraries /bin/bash link to are not available). 3) You can build bash statically; make WITH_STATIC_BASH=true. I do not know the true reason why the port is not built statically by default, but I can give you a damn good reason why it shouldn't be: complete and total wasted memory. Take into consideration environments where there are hundreds (or at my place of work, thousands) of users logged into a machine at once. Many of those are going to have /usr/local/bin/bash as their shell. A statically-linked version of bash would waste significant amounts of memory, while a dynamically-linked/shared version would ease that pain. The same applies for any static vs. dynamic program. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB | _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"