[Bio-linux-dev] bash compatibility

[Tony Travis]

On 04/02/15 12:10, Tim Booth wrote:
> Hi Tony,
>
> Perhaps you could weigh in on this discussion?
>
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=776663
>
> Note the comment from Axel Beckert:
>
> "With respect to shells, I usually find that applications, that need to
> inject code into a user's shell to be by and large mis-designed."

Hi, Tim.

I will, but not just now...

> I actually agree.  Applications should not rely on the behaviour of the
> controlling shell.  My reason for making the wishlist request was to
> allow Andreas' proposed blend selection system to function outside of
> Bash, and that's an issue related to default preferences rather than a
> requirement for functionality.

I believe that the environment should be set up at login, not each time
a shell is executed. For 'conventional' shells (e.g. sh and bash), that
means /etc/profile. Adding profile 'fragments' in /etc/profile.d comes
from Red-Hat and (before that) BSD. I think it is a useful convention
and use it a lot. One consequence, though, is that GUI terminal windows
then have to be run as a login shell. However, shells spawned from the
terminal window do not source /etc/profile and /etc/profile.d/*.

What bothers me about this is that the vast majority of people using
Debian/Ubuntu do NOT use "zsh". I want to be able to allow our users to
change their shell from "zsh" to "bash" without breaking anything. The
convention of putting config fragments in <service>.d/* is widespread
and useful. However, mirroring /etc/profile.d as /etc/zprofile.d does
not help. It just makes things worse. Winning hearts and minds to use
Bio-Linux is more difficult if you tell people they can't use "bash".

For our course in Assam  in two weeks, we will use "zsh", but with my
patch on the servers so it will source /etc/profile and, indirectly,
/etc/profile.d/*. However, some of the more experienced participants
already use "bash" as I do.

Thanks for the heads-up about the debate :-)

Bye,

  Tony.

--
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and
Environmental Sciences, Cruickshank Building, St. Machar Drive, Aberdeen
AB24 3UU, Scotland, UK. tel +44(0)1224 272700, fax +44 (0)1224 272 396
http://www.abdn.ac.uk, mailto:tony.travis at abdn.ac.uk, skype:ajtravis


The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Àir. SC013683.