More bash POSIX-compliance bugs

[Eric Blake]

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While searching for more details about the requirement for `pwd -P' to set
PWD in POSIX mode, I found several other compliance bugs:

1) time is no longer allowed to be a reserved word.  For example:
$ set -o posix
$ alias !='echo hi;'
$ alias time='echi hi;'
$ ! true                # ! is reserved word, not alias
$ echo $?
1
$ time true             # BUG: time should be an alias, and echo hi

real    0m0.000s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.000s
$ set +o posix
$ ! true                # outside of posix mode, bash documents that
hi                      # aliases take precedence over reserved words
$ echo $?
0
$ time true             # BUG: again, time should be an alias

real    0m0.000s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.000s
$

(Likewise, source is not documented as a reserved word, but since time is
a POSIX-required utiltiy while source is not, I am okay with source
remaining a reserved word.)


2) The wording of bash-3.0/POSIX is misleading on item 4.  Rather than
stating "Reserved words may not be aliased", you should state something
like "An aliased reserved word does not undergo alias expansion if it is
in the context of a reserved word".  As demonstrated in POSIX XRAT, an
aliased reserved word that is not in the context of a reserved word
undergoes alias expansion:
$ alias while=hi
$ alias foo='echo '
$ foo while
hi


3) Items 18 and 19 of bash-3.0/POSIX are wrong.  Reread the description of
cd (http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/cd.html), the
interpretation on it
(http://www.opengroup.org/austin/interps/uploads/40/6230/AI-037.txt), and
pending corrections to the interpretation
(https://www.opengroup.org/sophocles/show_mail.tpl?source=L&listname=austin-group-l&id=8042).
 Item 18 is wrong because there is nothing that states that the use of
CDPATH turns on -P handling.  And item 19 is wrong because when CDPATH
without . fails to find a directory in step 5, step 6 reverts to using
$PWD (the current directory).  The following example is required to behave
the same in POSIX mode as it currently does for normal bash mode:

$ set -o posix
$ cd /tmp
$ mkdir -p a a/aa
$ ln -s a b
$ CDPATH=b cd aa
/tmp/b/aa
$ echo $PWD          # BUG: Should be /tmp/b/aa, as printed
/tmp/a/aa
$ cd -
/tmp
$ CDPATH=/tmp/a/aa cd b  # BUG: Should change to /tmp/b, and set PWD
bash: cd: b: No such file or directory


4) POSIX requires that times be a special built-in.  For example:
$ foo=bar times
0m0.140s 0m0.156s
0m2.078s 0m0.683s
$ echo foo: $foo       # BUG: should print foo: bar
foo:
$

(On a related note, I think POSIX is ambiguous on the behavior of the
following - does the setting of foo take place before or after it is unset?
$ foo=bar unset foo
$ echo $foo         # Some shells echo bar, others echo nothing
)


5) POSIX requires that newgrp be provided as a regular shell built-in, as
well as a standalone utility.  POSIX states that "A common implementation
of newgrp is that the current shell uses exec to overlay itself with
newgrp, which in turn overlays itself with a new shell after changing
group. On some implementations, however, this may not occur and newgrp may
be invoked as a subprocess."  It is the action of overlaying the current
shell with newgrp which was the rationale for providing newgrp as a
regular built-in, even if you choose to implement the built-in by simply
deferring to the standalone utility rather than changing groups within
bash before starting the new shell environment.  On cygwin, where no one
has yet ported a newgrp utility, bash currently fails to be
POSIX-compliant because of the missing newgrp builtin:
$ newgrp
bash: newgrp: command not found

- --
Life is short - so eat dessert first!

Eric Blake             ebb9@byu.net

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