Re: bash 4.x filters out environmental variables containing a dot in the name

[Chet Ramey]

Stephane CHAZELAS wrote:

>> Posix also says that "variables" are inherited from the environment.  That
>> word has a very specific meaning, as was reiterated during the $@ and set -u
>> discussion.  The same "variables" language is used when Posix talks about
>> creating the environment for shell execution environments.
> 
> Yes, but that's shell variables, it's not talking about the rest
> of the environment.

Yes, well, that's the question, isn't it?  Whether there is any "rest
of the environment."  Is the environment passed to subshells made up
of only shell variables with the export attribute?  Since we agree
that invalid shell assignments in the environment don't cause shell
variables to be created, they must belong to some special class that
is outside the rest of the shell to get them passed to subshells.

>> Historical versions of sh and ksh behave like bash-4.0.
> 
> ksh93 doesn't but pdksh/mksh still does.

This behavior changed in ksh93s.

> I think it's probably worth asking the Austin group about it.

Probably.

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer

Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/