Subject: Shells in general
To: port-mac68k mailing list <port-mac68k@netbsd.org>
From: Steve Revilak <revilak@umbsky.cc.umb.edu>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 10/12/1998 12:34:37
Ken Nakata wrote:

>I always change root's shell to /bin/sh as soon as I do a fresh install
>whether it's NetBSD or something else.  I personally think no variant of
>csh should ever be distributed with the rest of the system.

Ken,

I know you as being a strong of the bourne shell & it's variants.  I
realize /bin/sh is usually the preferred shell for scripting, at it allows
seperate redirection of /stdout, & /stederr, whereas the C-shell variants
don't.

I've always used csh or it's variant, tcsh.  Why?  NetBSD was my first
exposure to unix, not quite a year ago.  My initial logins were as root,
whose shell was set to /csh by default.  By the time I was able to set
myself up as a user account for myself...I used csh just for the reason
that I was used to it, moving to tcsh because it offered improvements.

Not asking you to defend yourself, but rather because this is something I
don't know and I'd like to :  What are the 'selling points' of the bourne
shell variants.  OR, what are the disadvantages of the c-shell?

Hoping this doesn't start a holy war.  Rather, I've become familiar enough
with Unix that I shoud start becoming aware of these subtleties &
distinctions.

Steve Revilak
revilak@umbsky.cc.umb.edu