Re: Fw: [bug-gnulib] Missing space after shebang, or autoconf doc error?

[Keith Marshall]

Hi Werner,

On Thursday 19 May 2005 1:03 pm, you wrote:
> This will interest you.
>
> >     According to the autoconf info files
> >    this might cause problems on some old platforms.
>
> As far as I know, that's incorrect information promulgated originally by
> Greg what's-his-name, many years ago.  It's come up many times since and
> no one has ever come up with an actual platform on which it is a
> problem, to my knowledge.  Certainly none that still exist today, in any
> case.
>
> I thought it had been eradicated from the autoconf docs some years ago.
> Oh well.
>
>     but I think it is a good idea to make
>     all shebangs in the various scripts look similar.
>
> If someone wants to take the time to change it, that's ok with me, but I
> don't think it's necessary.

Ok.  Thanks for the update.  I hadn't been aware of it as a problem myself.  
I simply noticed the recommendation in the autoconf info files, and realised 
that groff has a number of scripts which didn't conform, so, in my groff CVS 
sandbox, I did

        for f in `grep -lr '#!/' .`
        do
          sed 's?#!/?#! /?' $f > xx && mv xx $f
        done
        cvs -z5 diff -u | gzip > patchfile.gz

to create the patch, and a similar trick to generate most of the ChangeLog 
entry, so I didn't waste much time on it.

If it isn't really a problem, then it's no big deal if you want to revert the 
patch, or leave it as it is now -- everything should work fine either way.  
However, the misleading advice, if indeed it is so, really should be expunged 
from the autoconf documentation, IMHO.

Best regards,
Keith.