Re: Sysinst default root login shell

[Wraukon the Excellent <relayer%gmail.com@localhost>]

On 04/12/2012 10:10 PM, Eric Haszlakiewicz wrote:

> hmmm... I think if you look closely enough you'll find Net*BSD* is quite
> different from what was distributed by CSRG.  I guess that means it should 
> have been renamed long ago.

I disagree.  I think that, of all the BSDs, NetBSD is the one which, in layout
and functionality, most closely matches what the CSRG would have produced
had it been necessary for them to continue on that path.  We have preserved
filesystem layout, device names (modulo /dev/pts/), design elegance, etc.
To say that it is absolutely NOT a preservation project is as much of a
falsehood as it is to claim the opposite.

And I sure's HELL don't want to see BSD *EVER* start feeling like System V.

>> Or if you want to talk about redundancy, why do we have vi, ed, ex, sed, 
>> and awk?  We only really need one editor, don't we?

That's a disingenuous question.

* vi is the default fullscreen editor.
* ed is a scriptable line editor which can also run interactively.
* ex is vi in ed mode and, IMO, useless, but my perception is based on
  the number of times i have ever HAD TO USE ex (I count zero in 28 years).
* sed does some fun things, but I am not familiar with how to rearrange
  line order on output without a filter; the copy spaces make no sense to me.
* awk does something completely different with its input; it's mostly meant to
  operate on fields of lines and produce (hopefully) something meaningful.

> 
> You won't hear many complaints from me if you want to dump ed and ex.

My opinion:

Do NOT dump ed.  It's still useful -- there are things that are more obviously
done in ed than with sed, PLUS you can edit the file in situ when done and not
have to worry about interim files.


>  We're talking about a
> default for root logins, and as has been pointed out, you can still pick
> which shell you want when you install.

As it should be. :)

> eric

I import some niceties from Linux just because I have become used to them;
however, they're all so minor that I'm able to set them up as short shell
scripts or functions, or aliases.  Doesn't mean I want to run Linux, nor
does it mean that I think everyone else should have to use them.