Hello. A /bin/sh script I wrote about 10 years ago under NetBSD-5 broke under NetbSD-10.99.12. The issue seems to be a change in the way command line arguments are assigned to the $number variables, i.e. $1, $2, $3, etc. I wrote two scripts, below, to illustrate the issue. Since the new (bad) behavior is exhibited by new versions of bash and by /bin/sh on FreeBSD-13.1, I assume it is correct. However, I don't understand the reason why these modern shells are mangling the command line arguments which are assigned to the numeric variables if previous command line arguments include a hypen "-". Can someone explain the logic of what is going on here? The older shell assigns the arguments to their numeric values without changing the values of subsequent arguments.
Any light which can be shed on this strangeness would be greatly appreciated. -thanks -Brian Good (old) script Script started on Mon Mar 10 08:43:49 2025 %uname -a NetBSD www3.nfbcal.org 5.2_STABLE NetBSD 5.2_STABLE (NFBCAL_DOMU) #0: Fri Nov 19 09:03:13 PST 2021 buh...@lothlorien.nfbcal.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/NFBCAL_DOMU amd64 %./runtestarg arg1 = -cmd1 arg2 = -cmd2 arg3 = cmd3 arg4 = cmd4 arg5 = cmd5 arg6 = cmd6 arg7 = cmd7 arg8 = cmd8 arg9 = cmd9 arg10 = cmd10 arg11 = cmd11 %exit %exit Script done on Mon Mar 10 08:44:09 2025 Bad (new) script Script started on Mon Mar 10 08:45:09 2025 %uname -a NetBSD lothlorien.nfbcal.org 10.99.12 NetBSD 10.99.12 (MIRKWOOD_PVH) #0: Thu Dec 5 22:47:09 PST 2024 buh...@loth-9.nfbcal.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/MIRKWOOD_PVH amd64 %./runtestarg arg1 = -cmd1 arg2 = -cmd2 arg3 = cmd3 arg4 = cmd4 arg5 = cmd5 arg6 = cmd6 arg7 = cmd7 arg8 = cmd8 arg9 = cmd9 arg10 = -cmd10 arg11 = -cmd11 %exit %exit Script done on Mon Mar 10 08:45:20 2025 Here are the scripts themselves. The runtestarg script runs the testarg script and the testarg script generates the output you saw above. #!/bin/sh # Test retrieving command arguments by using numeric values. arg1=$1 arg2=$2 arg3=$3 arg4=$4 arg5=$5 arg6=$6 arg6=$6 arg7=$7 arg8=$8 arg9=$9 arg10=$10 arg10=$10 arg11=$11 # Now, print the arguments we received. echo "arg1 = $1" echo "arg2 = $2" echo "arg3 = $3" echo "arg4 = $4" echo "arg5 = $5" echo "arg6 = $6" echo "arg7 = $7" echo "arg8 = $8" echo "arg9 = $9" echo "arg10 = $10" echo "arg11 = $11" exit 0 #!/bin/sh ./testarg -cmd1 -cmd2 cmd3 cmd4 cmd5 cmd6 cmd7 cmd8 cmd9 cmd10 cmd11 exit 0
