Bug 75751

Scripts which do not have a shebang are perfectly technically correct.
The OS uses the default shell automatically.  However, it isn't a big
deal to add a shebang, so I'll add #!/bin/bash which is our official
system shell (and not /bin/sh)

Also, I might as well note in case you're a purist...

/bin/sh is linked to bash on Red Hat Linux:

[mharris@devel BUILD]$ dir /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            4 Sep 26 02:23 /bin/sh -> bash

... so, it makes no difference which is there as the same shell gets
used in either case.  Again, bash is the supported system shell, so
that is what we care about being there.

(Clarifying so as to avoid a pointless /bin/sh purist debate which will
end up in me doing what I've decided to do anyway)

mharris wrote:  
  
Also, I might as well note in case you're a purist...  
  
/bin/sh is linked to bash on Red Hat Linux:  
  
[mharris@devel BUILD]$ dir /bin/sh  
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            4 Sep 26 02:23 /bin/sh -> bash  
  
************************  
  
Yes, I know that sh is linked to bash -- I wasn't filing the report on 
'purist' grounds, so no need to worry there. ;) 
  
Thanks for clarifying the other issue regarding lack of an interpreter line.

I'm not a purist, but I'll play one here  ;-)

u-pl6:~/BIG/translate$ /bin/bash
u-pl6:~$ set |grep POSIX
u-pl6:~$ exit
u-pl6:~/BIG/translate$ /bin/sh
u-pl6:~/BIG/translate$ set |grep POSIX
POSIXLY_CORRECT=y
u-pl6:~/BIG/translate$ exit

bash changes its behavior depending on whether it was invoked as bash or sh

That's not a surprise.  It is documented behaviour and should be present
in the bash manpage.  When invoked as /bin/sh or with POSIXLY_CORRECT,
bash will definitely behave differently.  I still think it would have
been nice if RMS would have called it POSIX_ME_HARDER like he wanted
to originally though.

Mike, you are not completely right.  I'm closing this old bug, as your
could would work anyway.  But about shebang's being technically
optional, I'm afraid not.  It's the shell that defaults to /bin/sh. 
If you use exec set of functions, it would not work without shebang. 
Here's an example:

Compile this one as 'a':
#include <unistd.h>
 
void
main()
{
    execl("./x", "x", 0);
}


and write a simple script x:

echo "I'm x".

and try ./a, you see nothing.  Now add shebang to x, try ./a, you see
the output.

Would you close then.  I can't.

That isn't the proper way to invoke a shell script from a C program.
No surprise there.

Let's please not waste each other's time with a totally pointless
debate in a bug report though.

The purpose of this report ultimately is to request that a shebang
be added to a script because it is missing.  I will do that probably
in good time if it isn't done already, but it's a rather low priority
issue.  The bug can stay open until someone fixes it.  Part of the
reason switchdesk bugs are low priority is because we'd like to
completely remove switchdesk, but for some reason or another it
keeps sticking around.  ;o)   The switchdesk CVS repo is also
screwed up IIRC.

Just FYI, the proper way to invoke a shell script, is with the
interpreter as the first argument to exec*()

Anyway, all of the information required to fix and close this bug
report is within the bug report, no further comments are needed
from anyone.  Thanks for pinging me on it though.

Adding to tracker

it's fixed in 4.0.0, which is available in rawhide.