Re: How to detect bash?

[mwoehlke]

Dave Rutherford wrote:
> On 10/10/06, mwoehlke <mwoehlke@tibco.com> wrote:
> > Completely non-workable. That only works if the bash I want is in
> > /bin/bash
>
> Well, no.  It works as long as the last thing in the path
> is 'bash'.  It could be /usr/bin/bash, /home/bin/bash,
> or yes, /bin/bash.  But why the heck don't you know,
> if these systems are under your control?

I have root access, but they aren't "my" systems; rampantly changing 
them would Not Be Appreciated. And since when does '#! /bin/bash' mean 
"use whatever 'bash' you find in $PATH"? Silly me, I thought it meant 
"use '/bin/bash'".

I *probably* want '/home/install/gnu/<arch>/bin/bash' (note the 
*non-constant* in that path), but not on my desktop. Plus, part of the 
goal is for *other* people - who like me also may not have /home/install 
(and whose computers I don't have /any/ access to) - to be able to run 
the script.

The point is that about the only shebang you can rely on is /bin/sh, 
which rarely gets you what you actually *want*. There is almost always 
*some* shell at /bin/sh. It is often not the optimal one. Over here, we 
have *long* known that shebangs do not make for portable scripts. 
Instead I use the current shell, but come up with this little trick to 
make sure it's bash.

> And why the heck do you think this is is *bug* in *bash*?

Um, did I say I did? I didn't see a not-bugs list, and I'm not the first 
one to ask a 'How do I...' question here.

--
Matthew
KDE: Desktop Excellence