On 18/06/2020 18.22, Eli Schwartz via arch-general wrote: > On 6/18/20 12:08 PM, lists@xxxxxxx wrote: >> On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 11:17:08PM +0100, Piscium via arch-general wrote: >>> But switching to dash would also be about security, as less code means >>> less bugs [5]. >> >> Usage of a more concise, powerful and clean shell language is much more >> suitable as a point when bringing forth an argument of there being less >> bugs. >> >> I'd say that the amount of bugs in the underlying implementation of a >> shell almost does matter nothing when compared to the horrors of >> hacked-together shell scripts that try to be as "basic" as possible, >> trying to be as "compatible" as possible with anything, exchanging >> cleanliness and expressiveness for horrible Debian init script-style >> code. >> >> Saving a pseudo-array into a string just to manually reconstruct the >> pseudo-list when the occasion arises to access a specific element is >> just one example of what awaits people who ignore the benefits of Bash >> arrays when they could have had them just by using a different shebang. > > Why does this have anything to do with switching /bin/sh? Scripts which > do not "ignore the benefits of bash arrays when they could have had them > just by using a different shebang", would not be affected by such a > change as they do not, in fact, use a different shebang. > > Meanwhile, scripts which use bashisms but a /bin/sh shebang are broken > even if /bin/sh is a symlink to bash. Bash disables some, but not all, > features of bash if it is invoked in POSIX mode, such as via a symlink > named /bin/sh -- so, you do not even get the benefits of bash, and never > have, if you used /bin/sh as your shebang. > This is a valid argument. >> And nearly everybody who has to write this quickly will do it wrong. > > And yet, some do not. Some write elegant, simple POSIX sh scripts which > do it right. For example, people often forget that pipelines and > functions are an option, and sometimes a much faster and better option > than global state variables. > > And most people who are writing /bin/bash scripts are *also* doing it > wrong because they don't really know what they are doing. Just saying. :p > This is an argument from the Perfect/Robot programmer and is utterly false. We should just collectively face the truth that shell is not a good way to program anything non-trivial. :D Regards,
