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Message-Id: <5.2.1.1.2.20030805133157.01e94190@pop.sonic.net>
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Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 13:35:38 -0700
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
From: Randall R Schulz <rschulz AT sonic DOT net>
Subject: Re: Yes but I don't understand ...
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 <5 DOT 2 DOT 1 DOT 1 DOT 2 DOT 20030805124611 DOT 0204abd0 AT pop DOT sonic DOT net>
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David,

At 13:14 2003-08-05, David Selby wrote:

>You are dead right, I tried
>
>/bin/bash <script>
>
>and it worked perfectly, but I am afraid I do not understand why ...
>echo $BASH_VERSION
>Tells me I have bash
>
>I call cygwin with ...
>c:\cygwin\win\rxvt.exe -e \bin\bash --login -i
>ie bash
>
>Where did ash (a stripped down bash?) come in ?

As I understand it, it all goes back to the big bang...


I don't understand the question. Cygwin has for a long time used ash as 
it's /bin/sh. Ash is a POSIX compliant shell and is much lighter-weight 
than BASH. For purposes such as interpreting commands issuing from 
makefiles, it's faster start-up time makes it a better choice.

You script assumed BASH--that is, it used BASH-specific features. Thus 
it should explicitly invoke bash in its #! line. The fact that most 
Linuxes use BASH as their /bin/sh probably falsely led you to believe 
that BASH was _the_ shell in POSIX-compliant systems. That's not true. 
In fact, for a long time, even /bin/bash was a version 1.2 BASH, and 
that was a far cry from what we now know as BASH.


>Dave


Randall Schulz


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