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Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 11:24:57 -0600
From: JT Williams <jeffw AT darwin DOT sfbr DOT org>
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: disable bash builtin(s)
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-: The only way this can ever trouble the user would be if some program
-: was installed under the name 'select' --- which is quite obviously a
-: rather bad idea, for exactly this reason.

This this exactly the problem.

For example, we have for years used a commercial package (a pedigree
management database) that came with its own `sort' and `merge', which
conflicted with Unix sort and RCS merge.  Both the Unix and the db `sort'
and `merge' are frequently used, however, and so disabling either set was
not an option.  The conflict was side-stepped by requiring the commercial
routines to be prefaced with the name of the package (a la cvs <command>).

The conflict with `select' has a similar origin; `select' is a standard
database operation, but it conflicts with a bash keyword.  In this case,
however, the use of `select' in a db context is far more common than in
a shell context, which got me thinking about disabling just that one
bash keyword (only for the duration of the db session, though).