Alan Barrett wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Mar 2007, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> 
>>>/bin/sh is a symlink to dash, and that shell is not POSIX-compliant. In
>>>particular,
>>>
>>>"echo '\400'" echoes an @ character.
> 
> 
> POSIX allows that:  "If the first operand is -n, or if any of the
> operands contain a backslash ('\') character, the results are
> implementation-defined."
> 
> It's better to avoid using echo(1).  Use printf(1) with the "%s\n" format.

Sorry for propagating that urban legend about echo(1). ;)

I have sometimes thought about creating a very nasty operating system 
(or just a POSIX environment) in which everything is implemented as 
badly as possible, deviating from all expectations. And then, we could 
port pkgsrc to it and be proud. :)

http://wiki.netbsd.se/index.php/Pkgsrc_torture_test

Roland