On 07/22/2009 08:54 AM, Braden McDaniel wrote:
On Fri, 2009-07-17 at 01:54 -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Script_Interpreters_(draft)
I've just submitted this draft. This seems to support the following
feature which I need to find the owner of and coordinate with:
The problem I see with this is that it's bound to result in patches that
some upstream developers will find unpalatable. Can non-Fedora-specific
arguments be made against this practice *that are sufficiently
compelling to justify the potential for long-term maintenance of
patches*?
Well, the primary reason for using #!/usr/bin/env is script-portability
to support cases, in which using a hard-coded interpreter is not feasible.
Such cases typically are
a) there is no "standardized location" for an interpreter.
e.g. though presuming presence of /bin/bash is pretty safe on Linuxes,
there is no "standardized location" for bash on "non" Linuxes.
b) /usr/bin/env is handy for cases in which not using the "standard
interpreter" is not desired.
Examples would be
- testing/development purposes (e.g. when developing on such an
interpreter, e.g. a new bash)
- testsuites to be run inside of a package. They typically want to use
the newly built interpreter and do not the system-wide version.
As b) is suiteable for distribution and development purposes, it is a
pretty compelling approach to keep a package simple on the developer's part.
I say, "non-Fedora-specific" because this is a lot more compelling if
the project can say, unequivocally, that Fedora is taking a stand
against a generally harmful practice. If, however, the reasons driving
this are mostly Fedora-specific, it's a harder sell. Broadly speaking,
a distribution like Fedora should be doing its best to adapt to what
upstream developers deliver.
IMO, /usr/bin/env is not necessarily harmful. It may cause undesired
side-effects if being carelessly used.
That said, my attitude on this is ambivalent and I am not convinced,
banning /usr/bin/env is a good idea.
One one hand, banning /usr/bin/env restricts the distro and helps
assuring consistency withing the distro, on the other hand, it restricts
usability of distro (for development purposes) and forces either
developers or packagers to _generating_ scripts.
Ralf
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