All,
This is a status report on this case from the case owner...
1. login.1 and su.1 man pages have been added to the materials
directory. Diffmarks in login.1 show changes made since PSARC case
2006/550 was approved. Diffmarks in su.1 show changes from the
current man page (su.1 was not updated by 2006/550). These changes
are supplied in response to a question raised by John Plocher.
2. The interfaces table is updated as follows:
Interface Stability Description
========= ========= ===========
/etc/ksh.kshrc Committed Per-system configuration file
for interactive ksh93 sessions
/etc/ksh.kshrc Uncommitted
contents
3. There is a lot of discussion about whether any default editing mode
should be provided for ksh93 and if so:
A. which one,
B. where it should be set, and
C. should it also be set for /usr/bin/ksh and /usr/xpg4/bin/sh.
My personal interpretation of the discussion so far is that the
vast majority of people participating in the discussion believe
that there should be a default, and:
A. Which one isn't really an architectural issue. Some Linux
distros default to none, some default to gmacs, and some
default to vi. Most other shells on Linux distros default to
a gmacs/emacs-like editing mode.
B. /etc/ksh.kshrc and $HOME/.kshrc are the only places to do this
without also affecting /usr/bin/ksh and /usr/xpg4/bin/sh users.
The project team has done a lot of research in this area and
believes that /etc/ksh.kshrc is a better choice than
$HOME/.kshrc. Although I think either one would be reasonable,
I see no reason for the ARC to override this decision. I don't
see it as architecture. A user can easily override the default
in a personal $HOME/.kshrc or $HOME/.profile no matter which
way this is handled.
C. If (or when) a case comes forward to replace one or more of
/sbin/sh, /usr/bin/sh, /usr/bin/ksh, and /usr/xpg4/bin/sh with
ksh93 we will need to discuss this again as a compatibility
issue. That discussion should not sidetrack this case. Note
that /sbin/sh and /usr/bin/sh do not currently provide any
command line editing options.
I do not believe this case should change the behavior of
/usr/bin/ksh nor /usr/xpg4/bin/sh. Note that this case is
seeking a patch binding with a possibility of being backported
to prior releases. I do not believe that a patch that installs
an alternative shell as part of a feature patch should affect
the behavior of other shells. The project team expects to
integrate the changes for PSARC case 2006/550 and this case at
the same time.
Sincerely,
Don
