der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> writes:

>Is expr a shell builtin too, now, then?  I thought the whole point was
>to stick to builtins.

expr is an external command with the NetBSD sh (as you probably know.)
However, NetBSD ships with /bin/ksh (in the pdksh implementation)...
converting the startup scripts to use that shell instead of the
legacy sh would have the immediate benefits that some of the
problems which are currently being discussed would be addressed
right away (like regular-expression pattern-matching with builtins,
avoidance of external commands for better performance, etc.)

mkb