Hey Tim,

> t...@servo:~/Downloads$ ./arm-2009q3-67-arm-none-linux-gnueabi.bin
> The installer has detected that your system uses the dash shell
> as /bin/sh.  This shell is not supported by the installer.
> You can work around this problem by changing /bin/sh to be a
> symbolic link to a supported shell such as bash.
> For example, on Ubuntu systems, execute this shell command:
>    % sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow dash
>    Install as /bin/sh? No
> Please refer to the Getting Started guide for more information,
> or contact CodeSourcery Support for assistance.
> t...@servo:~/Downloads$
> 
> Do I want to touch this?  Is this going to screw up _other_ software 
> that may be looking for 'sh' to be a Dash shell command?  Or am I fairly 
> safe playing with it?
> 
> And do I want to just change the link manually, or do I want to use 
> dpgk-reconfigure as they suggest?


Debian actually uses bash for /bin/sh by default.  I personally always
change this to dash.  /bin/sh is supposed to be a POSIX compliant
shell, but bash always supports non-compliant syntax which causes some
coders to write shell scripts with "bashisms" that aren't portable.  

Also, bash is a memory hog like no other.  As DJB once said: "There
are good interfaces and then there are user interfaces".  Bash is
definitely a user interface.  So dash is both faster and keeps you
honest by being POSIX compliant and restricting you to POSIX compliant
syntax.

The fact that this company requires /bin/sh to be bash means that
they're writing bash scripts and sticking "#!/bin/sh" in the header
instead of "#!/bin/bash".  A simple bug to fix on their end, but for
some reason they expect users to change they way they operate to
accommodate them.

Summary:  That's really annoying, but it probably won't break anything
to switch to bash, besides making your shell scripts run slower.

tim
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