ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) (12/12/86)
Index: bin/sh 4.3BSD Description: Arguments to a "sh -c" command are mishandled. Repeat-By: Type in the command sh -c 'echo $*' a b c d and note the incorrect output: b c d -- Sh is a trademark of the American Librarians Association. -- UUCP: ..decvax!seismo!elsie!ado ARPA: elsie!ado@seismo.ARPA DEC, VAX, Elsie & Ado are Digital, Borden & Ampex trademarks.
gww@beatnix..UUCP (Gary Winiger) (12/13/86)
It is also appears to be mishandled by /bin/sh on System V Rel 2.2. When I try ``sh -c 'echo $*' a b c d'' on System V, it also produces ``b c d''. So 4.3 is probably not the original culprit. V 2.2 sh has been reworked to look like C rather than Steve Bourne's original pseudo Algol. Gary..
kab@reed.UUCP (Kent Black) (12/16/86)
In article <7296@elsie.UUCP> ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) writes:
= Index: bin/sh 4.3BSD
=
= Description:
= Arguments to a "sh -c" command are mishandled.
=
= Repeat-By:
= Type in the command
= sh -c 'echo $*' a b c d
= and note the incorrect output:
= b c d
This is not a bug; $* expands to $1 - $n, i.e.,
skips $0, which happens to be 'a'.
Try
sh -c 'echo $0' a b c
-- kabkarl@haddock.UUCP (Karl Heuer) (12/16/86)
[Braces appearing below are used for quoting. --kwzh] In article <7296@elsie.UUCP> ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) writes: >Type in the command { sh -c 'echo $*' a b c d } and note the incorrect >output: { b c d }. "That's not a bug, it's a feature!" :-) "a" is being assigned to $0. If you don't care about $0, use a placeholder: { sh -c 'echo $*' sh a b c d }*. It would be nice if this were documented, though. I've never seen a man page for sh that mentions the possibility of giving arguments to a { sh -c }, and it's been implemented slightly differently in various incarnations. Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint *Do not use "-" as the placeholder; argv[0][0]=='-' is magic!