Re: [PATCH 1/2] help: add shell-path to --build-options

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

"brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net> writes:

> This seems straightforward and logical (as does the rest of the series),
> but I wondered if it might be a good idea to try to interrogate the
> shell for more information.  The reason I mention it is that Debian
> permits any shell that meets certain standards to be /bin/sh, and all
> programs that invoke /bin/sh must depend on only those features.  The
> default is dash, but people could use bash, which is more featureful, or
> posh, which is intentionally designed to provide the bare minimum
> /bin/sh experience[0], among others.  A value of "/bin/sh" doesn't
> necessarily tell us very much on Debian (or on macOS, for that matter).

Good point.  Perhaps readlink(3) on it, then?

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Mar 11  2018 /bin/sh -> /bin/bash

> Now, that of course does mean that we have to have some way to
> distinguish between shells, and that is the hard part, so I'm completely
> fine with us leaving it out until we have a good way to do it (or until
> we decide we need it, which may be never).  I just wanted to mention it
> as a potential approach for the future.  I'm happy with this series as
> it stands right now.
>
> [0] Quite literally, in that it's supposed to be a tool for testing
> compatibility with the policy requirements.