On 23 Nov 2006 13:43:52 +0200, Jari Aalto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Bash is not essential for running Debian. It is possible to run old PCs and old laptops completely free of bash. The point here is not the disk consumption, but the reduced memory constrainsts. When scripts are written with only "sh" in mind, they become portable to even embedded systems (think busybox). Every bash-dependent scipt that runs on the system, takes memory out from other processes.
If disk-consumption is not the issue, the you don't need to uninstall it, you just need to point the /bin/sh symlink somewhere else. Bash can stay where it is and we don't have to have anyone declare dependancies on it either. If we want to mandate that maintainer scripts using /bin/sh should also work with dash, then do that, but I don't think we need we need to add complexity to the packaging system to deal with this.
Education sector and 3rd world still have PCs that are *years* and *tears* old. Everybody do not live in countries where computers or hardware are cheap.
There's a difference between requiring maintainer scripts to say /bin/bash if they need bash constructs and rewriting existing scripts to work with some generic shell. The former is going to be *much* easier. Isn't that enough? Have a nice day, -- Martijn van Oosterhout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://svana.org/kleptog/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
