Re: PATCH: ztcp

[Clint Adams <clint@zsh.org>]

> It lets you choose a specific fd to which to assign the descriptor, rather
> than having to take whatever you get.  In POSIX emulation mode, fds > 9
> can't [*] be redirected to/from, so it's important to be able to specify
> a known-free number.

I had imagined that you could do something like 'exec 9<&$REPLY'
if you wanted to pick the fd.  Unfortunately this doesn't
update the session table.

> Incidentally, I did mention your objection to /dev/tcp/portname on the
> shell mailing list, but the response was that several unix variants have
> already implemented /dev/tcp/* as special files, so the shell would only
> be emulating that interface on platforms that don't support it, much as
> zsh already does with /dev/fd/.

Hmm.  Is there a spec yet, or is bash just the reference implementation?