*BSD News Article 73292


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From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.networking,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Shells (Was: TCP latency)
Date: 10 Jul 1996 09:31:51 GMT
Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden
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Message-ID: <4rvta7$b8n@innocence.interface-business.de>
References: <4paedl$4bm@engnews2.eng.sun.com> <4qc60n$d8m@verdi.nethelp.no>
  <31D2F0C6.167EB0E7@inuxs.att.com> <4rfkje$am5@linux.cs.helsinki.fi>
  <31DC8EBA.41C67EA6@dyson.iquest.net> <4rqcsk$ff8@fido.asd.sgi.com>
  <4rql4p$39f@innocence.interface-business.de> <4rrimn$dro@fido.asd.sgi.com>
  <31E16DB5.41C67EA6@dyson.iquest.net> <4rtvpf$7e5@fido.asd.sgi.com>
Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch)
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[Dunno which is the right Linux newsgroup to follow this up to, please
redirect as appropriate.]

lm@neteng.engr.sgi.com (Larry McVoy) wrote:

> I'm also interested in John's comment about the smaller, simpler shell
> that FreeBSD uses (I assume it is /bin/sh, right?).  If FreeBSD has a
> simple shell that doesn't break any common scripts (like rc.d scripts,
> that would be a bummer), I'd vote for using that in Linux.  I hate using
> bash to start processes, it's bloated.

It's ash, the Almquist shell, but as i understand it, with many
Posixization done by the CSRG team.  Yep, it's the /bin/sh in the
4.4BSD's.

It doesn't break more scripts than bash used to break ;-), it's not
fully up to Posix, and i've got a few bug reports or enhancement
requests in the queue which i will eventually deal with some day.

Anyway, bash is also a known offender in many respects.  You might
also consider zsh as a good Korn shell clone.

j@ida 426% ls -l /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/bash
-r-xr-xr-x  1 bin  bin  311296 18 Jun 21:19 /bin/sh*
-r-xr-xr-x  1 bin  bin  331776  6 Mär 23:32 /usr/local/bin/bash*

Note that the statically linked /bin/sh (which is rather bloated by
its builtin (non-GNU) readline library) is still smaller than the
dynamically linked bash. :]

-- 
J"org Wunsch					       Unix support engineer
joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de       http://www.interface-business.de/~j