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Re: bash manual on interactive shell


From: Oğuz
Subject: Re: bash manual on interactive shell
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2021 11:08:17 +0300

On Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 8:31 AM Mallika <mallika.bachan@gmail.com> wrote:

> "An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments, unles*s*
> -s is specified, without specifying the -c option, and whose input and
> error output are both connected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or
> one started with the -i option."
>
> I'm a little confused about how all the and's and or's combine (I suppose
> it's obvious if you're a little more familiar with the material - but it
> would be great if it were possible to express this by indentation),
>
> but I'd actually decided to write in just to clarify that first line:
> "started without non-option arguments,"
>
> Does "option arguments" mean "option*al* arguments"?
> If so, is the statement even correct? i.e. should it not be
> "started without optional arguments"?

It says "non-option" arguments; in other words, arguments that aren't options.

>
> If the double-negative* is *actually correct, wouldn't the same sentiment
> be expressed by "started with only option(al?) arguments"? Double-negatives
> are inherently confusing, so it would be helpful to avoid them.

No. An "option argument" would be an argument that follows an option,
such as `extglob' in `bash -O extglob'. That sentence is not about
them.

As to what non-option arguments are, all arguments in `bash file
command_name positional_parameters' are non-option arguments, so are
command name and positional parameters in `bash -s command_name
positional_parameters'; but the former starts a non-interactive shell,
and the latter starts an interactive shell since `-s' is specified.

>
> -Mallika



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