On 8/14/2018 5:28 AM, Ben Elliston wrote:
Hi John
The Autoconf shell portability guide [1] says this about ${var:-value}
substitutions (which, I should point out, *are* in the POSIX shell):
${var:-value}
Old BSD shells, including the Ultrix sh, don't accept the colon
for any shell substitution, and complain and die. Similarly for
${var:=value}, ${var:?value}, etc.
[1]
https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.64/html_node/Shell-Substitutions.html#Shell-Substitutions
So, the question is, should we use these in config.sub? My instinct is
that we should allow anything that is in POSIX sh. I'm sure someone
out there is still running Ultrix, but they shouldn't be. ;-)
@eggert, what do you think?
I'm not eggert but IMO there is always the ability to install a POSIX
compliant shell in the local environment so we just force the
requirement to have one for autotools. The quoted document was written
when open source environments weren't prevalent and businesses needed
hand held to be accepting. Now businesses readily accept open source as
a viable solution and the hand holding is no longer a requirement.
--
Earnie
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