Re: autoconfig

["Mark K. Gardner" <mkgardne@cs.uiuc.edu>]

>> Scott Schwartz <schwartz@cse.psu.edu> writes:
>> Byron Rakitzis <byron@netapp.com> writes:

Byron> > #define DEFAULTPATH "/usr/ucb", "/usr/bin", "/bin", "."
Byron> 
Byron> I think this can be deduced by running /bin/sh as a login shell
Byron> with $PATH unset, and snarfing the output of "echo $PATH".

Scott> I like adding /usr/local/bin to defaultpath, something /bin/sh
Scott> doesn't do, because rc doesn't source .rcrc unless it is a
Scott> login shell and more localized defaults makes rsh work better.

Except that /usr/local/bin isn't completely standard. Our support
department, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to use /local/bin
instead. I like the idea (suggested by someone else) that there be an
autoconfig option to set the default path.

Generalizing: any setting which is not universally standard should not
be hard-wired into the source (i.e., there should be an autoconfig
option for it). To do otherwise would limit the portability of the
code. As I see it, limiting portability is against the spirit of the
upcoming release. (It would be easy to argue that there is no such
thing as a universal standard in the unix world...suggesting that
everything should be an option. This is where keen judgement is
required. I defer to the sages among us for a definition of what is
sufficiently universal.)

Byron> I am sorely tempted to remove named pipe support. It never worked
Byron> properly.

Scott> But it works just barely well enough for SunOS, which has no
Scott> /dev/fd (unless you install a nonstandard modloaded device, or
Scott> override open().)

It also seems to work for Solaris 2.5.1 (SunOS 5.51) which does
provide /dev/fd, though I haven't tested it a lot. I would really like
to see this feature continue. As I posted separately, I have dreamed
of this feature for a long time and now that I have discovered that my
favorite shell has it... Well, I would hate to give it up!

-- 
Mark K. Gardner (mkgardne@cs.uiuc.edu)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Real-Time Systems Laboratory
--