ash documentation

[Denys Vlasenko]

On Saturday 07 May 2011 13:40, Sven Mascheck wrote:
> I am searching busybox ash documentation but haven't found any [1].
> (and I can't find any definitive statement that there's none, either.)
> 
> How do I find out about the changes which have been made to the dash
> which it was originally derived from - apart from wading through the
> git logs?  I'm both interested in fixes and features [2].
> 
> Are poeple supposed to find out about the very features by try&error,
> or by reading other ash manuals, and the opengroup specs?

Preparing changelog is some amount of work.
Someone needs to invest time in doing that.


> Are bash features only added to minimize surprises, that is, to grok
> existing scripts, and not so much to be used "as documented"?

I don't understand.

Bash compat features added to make Linux users' lives easier -
so that they can use same scripts on "big" Linux installations
and on "small", busybox-based ones Linux machines.

bash is the de-facto Linux standard shell. I think practicality
trumps "but it's not a standard feature!!!" zealotry a-la dash.
Therefore, emulating some bashisms is a good thing.
(Note that I don't strive to emulate ALL bashisms - some of them
are too obscure and/or too difficult to emulate exactly).

I don't force people to agree with me:
for those who don't want to have bash-specific code compiled in,
CONFIG_ASH_BASH_COMPAT can be unset.

> (how to debug subtle problems then?)

I don't understand.

-- 
vda