BSD added the #! "magic number" based on a suggestion from Ken I believe. Didn't the exec (2) manpage warn about argv[-1] being clobbered until that was added? On Sun, Aug 4, 2019, 4:31 PM Clem Cole wrote: > > > On Sun, Aug 4, 2019 at 4:18 PM Noel Chiappa > wrote: > >> Part of the problem is having the kernel involved in starting shell >> scripts; convenient in some ways, but V6 etc worked fine without that >> 'feature'. >> > That's a tough call. I have mixed opinions about it as a feature. I > kind of like the user/kernel interface really, really thin and unadorned. > > Adding, it certainly made allowing multiple interpreters to be supported > much easier; but as you say it opens a new can of worms. Given the later > proliferation of what bwk or Jon Bently once referred too as 'little > languages' (awk, perl, tcl, and sigh eventually python), it was probably a > good feature. > > But as you said, v6 worked fairly well without it. > > Clem >