Scripts starting with colon

[Keith Starsmeare <kxs AT bigfoot dot com>]

Why do scripts have to start with #! to be recognised as executable?
Scripts can start with just : to mean that it's either a bourne shell
script or a bash script depending on what shell you execute the script
from.

Was this an intentional ommission?

There are scripts in the cygwin installation that start with a colon,
for example gzexe, but the next line is #!/bin/sh and these files are
recognised as being executable.

It seems to be the case with cygwin that a file (with UNIX style end of
line characters) that starts with

:
#!

is the equivalent of a file that starts

#!/bin/sh

how confusing.

Could this matter be fixed (or added to a list of bugs - possibly
mentioned in the FAQ), or is it not considered a bug?

Keith

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