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From: Soren A <soren_andersen AT fastmail DOT fm>
Subject: Re: DOS <-> Bash interaction...
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 22:31:18 +0000 (UTC)
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"lhall AT pop DOT ma DOT ultranet DOT com" <lhall AT pop DOT ma DOT ultranet DOT com> wrote around 28 Jan 
2003 news:269620-22003122821248181 AT M2W089 DOT mail2web DOT com:

> This issue isn't Cygwin specific, since setting of the SHELL 
> environament variable is handled by the shell itself.

> As such, discussion of this is really off-topic for this list.

Cygwin bash is a *port* of GNU bash to _Cygwin_. As I have previously
written, this sort of discussion is IMNSHO *totally* ON-topic for
Cygwin. There are many potential issues here that wouldn't come into
play for bash users on a generic Unix platform. Furthermore, use of bash
is assumed for most new users of Cygwin, some of whom will also be using
a Unix-ish shell for the very first or nearly the very first time as
part of their experiential introduction to Cygwin. If the intent is to
exclude such users from Cygwin-usership, somewhat in the way that
certain Chem or Physics courses are used (made intentially very
difficult to pass) to "weed out" less gifted or prepared students in
pre-med-track College programs, then this is a very effective way of
doing that. "Don't offer any help with bash, reflexively condemn any
raising of such Q's as OT, tell all posters to RTFM rather than discuss
the finer points On-List" -- this sounds like a secret strategy and
agenda to me.

I wonder sometimes when you will tire of endlessly repeating this
refrain, Larry. It would take less time to answer such questions (thus
getting them into the Cygwin List archives) than the total time you've
put into telling other people what to discuss or not to discuss. I
myself am not tired of stating my disagreement with this POV and the
reasons why. 

> I found a quick check of the bash man page and searching for
> SHELL shed allot of light on the subject however.  You might 
> want to check it out yourself.  

I think it owuld be a lot more interesting to discuss the manpage here.

> I don't set SHELL in any startup files or my Windows environment.
> SHELL is always set to /bin/bash for me.

OK, but is it exported?

There is a difference between a shell variable that is _defined_ and one 
that is _defined_ and _exported_. A functional difference that matters very 
much when spawning any sub-processes.

  Agreeing to disagree, as usual,
    Soren A


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