Subject: Re: mysterious bash problem
From: [email-masked] (Fergus Henderson)

16 Jan 1998 21:29:41 -0800
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
References: <[email-masked]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
To: Earnie Boyd <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]

On 13-Jan-1998, Earnie Boyd <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Ulrich Lauther <[email-masked]> writes:
> >
> >Let foo be a valid shell script (starting with a ":" in the first line,
> >BTW):
> 
> To execute a script the first non-blank line must begin with
> 
> #! /bin/sh
> 
> where /bin/sh is the path and shell you want to execute.

I think you're missing some history.  Using `:' in the first line to
identify a Bourne shell script (as opposed to `#', for a C-shell script)
actually predates the `#!' convention.

If gnu-win32 doesn't support execution of shell scripts starting with
`:', then this is a bug in gnu-win32.  It works fine with other Unix
systems, including Linux.

In any case, the form of the error message

> >bash.exe: ./foo: (null)

is clearly a bug.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <[email-masked]>   |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>   |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger [email-masked]         |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.
-
For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to
"[email-masked]" with one line of text: "help".