[arch-dev-public] [signoff] coreutils 8.4-3

[Dieter Plaetinck]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:28:04 +1000
Allan McRae <allan at archlinux.org> wrote:

> On 15/04/10 03:40, Thomas Bächler wrote:
> > Am 14.04.2010 18:42, schrieb Dieter Plaetinck:
> >>> On Tuesday 13 April 2010 14:04:44 Allan McRae wrote:
> >>>> This changes /usr/bin/[ from a symlink to /usr/bin/test to the
> >>>> actual binary provided upstream.   The use of the symlink has
> >>>> been in Arch for ages (probably for ever), but I can not see
> >>>> what this change will break.   Having the symlink does break
> >>>> some stuff (FS#19063).   Note that Fedora moved from the symlink
> >>>> to the binary for "[" in 2004.
> >>
> >> so what exactly does the binary do? is it an exact copy
> >> of /usr/bin/test, is it a small program that does exec(), or .. ?
> >> I downloaded the 8.4 tarball but couldn't quickly find the answer.
> >
> > I don't think it matters. Neither [ nor test from coreutils are
> > actually ever used - the bash (or whatever shell you use) builtins
> > [ and test are used instead.
> >
> 
> In general, this is the only real difference:
> NOTE: [ honors the --help and --version options, but test does not.
> test treats each of those as it treats any other nonempty STRING.
> 
> The rest I think is better compatibility with test synatx when your 
> shell does not provide "[".
> 
> Anyway, we should be supplying what upstream installs.

I asked it just out of curiosity. I agree we should stick to
upstream.

Dieter