Re: [bug #24949] coreutils pwd not implementing latest POSIX features

[Paul Smith]

On Mon, 2008-12-01 at 10:33 +0000, James Youngman wrote:
> If you can rely enough on the platform being POSIX-conforming for -P
> to work, then why not just use Perl's POSIX module?

On some embedded systems where the rootfs is in a ramdisk I use, for
example, microperl.  This is an amazingly flexible and powerful
scripting language with a very small footprint, BUT it contains no Perl
modules whatsoever.  Some of these systems use busybox pwd but not all.

And of course there are other scripting languages that would like to
invoke pwd that don't have their own built-in modules.  Even just
writing a portable sh script isn't easy since POSIX-compliant sh's are
not required to have a built-in pwd.


I should admit that regardless of how this turns out I'll have to take
defensive measures since any change in coreutils, even if made today,
can't be relied upon "in the wild" for many years to come.  Still, we
should DTRT where possible.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
 http://www.gnu.org                      http://make.mad-scientist.us
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist