Re: dash unset idiosyncrasies

[Martijn Dekker <martijn@inlv.org>]

Parke schreef op 06-07-15 om 04:18:
> The man page does not say what happens if the given name corresponds
> only to a function.

Neither does POSIX, as you've found out: "[...] if a variable by that
name does not exist, it is unspecified whether a function by that name,
if any, shall be unset." I agree the dash man page could do with
clarifying this.

I've found it best, to avoid bugs and confusion, to always use 'unset'
with either the -v or the -f option (but not both). This should work
consistently on all POSIXly shells.

FYI, other shells produce similar output for your test script (except
AT&T ksh halts execution on 'unset' without parameters.) There seem to
be no shells that support unsetting both variables and functions with a
single 'unset' command.

- Martijn