Benjamin Scott writes:
> Is ksh required by POSIX?
No.
But /bin/sh is pretty much implied, since a process might need this
shell for either system() or popen().
> Is ksh generally implemented by all the various Unixes out there (both
> commercial and free)? (POSIX conformance varies.)
>
> I'm genuinely curious.
There was period of time at which I would have said "no", but the
exceptions would have been Linux and *BSD. IIRC, when I looked for a
free implementation of ksh a Long Time Ago, I couldn't find one. A
few years ago this seemed to change. Of course, there was always
Bash, which suited my needs just fine.
I've used a lot of different systems in my work and at this point in
time I can't think of a Unix without a ksh available for it.
(reminder: you said "generally" -- there are probably exceptions and
they're probably unimportant)
> > Of course all shell scripting should be done in either pure /bin/sh ...
>
> You just used "pure" and a Unix feature in the same sentence. Isn't that an
> oxymoron? :-)
Shell-scripting is pretty portable (with some well-known exceptions).
It's just that the commands that the shell calls for its work are
pretty non-portable.
(how about that non-portable "-s" switch for grep? or how about the
wild things that the Irix "find" command does? or how about those
esoteric "sed" bugs you run into here and there? Etc.)
> > ... or perl ...
>
> [Perl] It's a tremendously
> useful tool, but not something that should be used for critical system
> functions.
I must politely register my disagreement here. I think that this
argument has been beaten to death elsewhere though...
> While I'm ranting (who me?), I really hate APC's PowerChute for Linux
> software, which requires libstdc++ to send shutdown calls to the UPS. That
> don't work too well when it is called at the end of rc.halt and /usr is
> already unmounted. :-(
Suggestion: statically link the executable.
> I'm actually learning it in my Copious Free Time, because it seems to do
> real well as a UI-independent tool for designing easy-to-use front-ends for
> things.
The Tk interface for Perl is pretty nice as well.
--kevin
--
Kevin D. Clark | | Will hack Perl for
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | [email protected] | fine food, good beer,
Enterasys Networks | PGP Key Available | or fun.
Durham, N.H. (USA) | |
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