astksh review

Igor Pechtchanski pechtcha@cs.nyu.edu
Thu May 22 12:20:00 GMT 2003


On Wed, 21 May 2003, Charles Wilson wrote:

> Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
>
> > Chuck,
> >
> > While I concede your point about the gift horse, I was NOT trying to get
> > Karsten to change any of the build procedures by my comment, or even
> > request that the configure script be augmented (a wistful comment was
> > made, and I apologize if I stepped on people's toes).
>
> My comments were not addressed (soley) to you.  There were a number of
> rather petulant "why don't you do it THIS way" comments concerning
> ast-ksh.  Yours was the one lucky enough to take out my last, weakened,
> nerve -- so you got both barrels.
>
> But it was loaded with birdshot, so the marks should fade in a few days. :-)

Hmm, felt more like salt to me... ;-)  But it will fade.

> > What I did adamantly vote AGAINST is deprecating the pdksh package.  As
> > long as both packages are allowed to coexist (and the user can select
> > which one he/she wants to use), I'm happy.
>
> Agreed.  It's all about choice.
>
> And since both postinstall scripts should check to see if a ksh symlink
> already exists before creating one, they shouldn't step on each others
> toes too much.
>
> However, if Joe User has pdksh installed and wants to "upgrade"(?) to
> ast-ksh, he'll have to do two steps: use setup to download and install
> the ast-ksh package, and then MANUALLY create the ksh symlink.
>
> Because ast-ksh won't clobber pdksh's pre-existing link.  And vice versa.
>
> This could become a FAQ, unfortunately...but I don't see any way around
> it.  Perhaps Karsten's official announcement, when he gets to that
> point, could include the appropriate instructions in big friendly letters?
>
> <begin quote>
>
> Because both pdksh and ast-ksh provide ksh-like functionality, each
> package creates a link so that /usr/bin/ksh points to the "real" binary,
> whether pdksh.exe or ast-ksh.exe.  However, the two packages are
> well-behaved -- they will NOT overwrite a pre-existing link. SO, if you
> install both packages,  you should MANUALLY check that /usr/bin/ksh
> points to the binary you wish to use as the default ksh.  If not, you'll
> need to correct that MANUALLY.   To make ast-ksh the 'default' ksh, do this:
>
>    cd /usr/bin/
>    rm -f ksh
>    ln -fs ast-ksh.exe ksh
>
> To make pdksh the 'default' ksh, do this
>
>    cd /usr/bin/
>    rm -f ksh
>    ln -fs pdksh.exe ksh
> <end quote>
>
> And perhaps the pdksh maintainer could include similar text each time
> s/he releases a new version?
>
> --Chuck

Announcements are good, but it might also be a good idea to put the above
in the READMEs, on the off chance that people actually read them...
	Igor
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