Re: astksh review

[Charles Wilson <cwilson at ece dot gatech dot edu>]

Igor Pechtchanski wrote:

> Chuck,
>
> While I concede your point about the gift horse, I was NOT trying to get
> Karsten to change any of the build procedures by my comment, or even
> request that the configure script be augmented (a wistful comment was
> made, and I apologize if I stepped on people's toes).

My comments were not addressed (soley) to you.  There were a number of 
rather petulant "why don't you do it THIS way" comments concerning 
ast-ksh.  Yours was the one lucky enough to take out my last, weakened, 
nerve -- so you got both barrels.

But it was loaded with birdshot, so the marks should fade in a few days. :-)

> What I did adamantly vote AGAINST is deprecating the pdksh package.  As
> long as both packages are allowed to coexist (and the user can select
> which one he/she wants to use), I'm happy.

Agreed.  It's all about choice.

And since both postinstall scripts should check to see if a ksh symlink 
already exists before creating one, they shouldn't step on each others 
toes too much.

However, if Joe User has pdksh installed and wants to "upgrade"(?) to 
ast-ksh, he'll have to do two steps: use setup to download and install 
the ast-ksh package, and then MANUALLY create the ksh symlink.

Because ast-ksh won't clobber pdksh's pre-existing link.  And vice versa.

This could become a FAQ, unfortunately...but I don't see any way around 
it.  Perhaps Karsten's official announcement, when he gets to that 
point, could include the appropriate instructions in big friendly letters?

<begin quote>

Because both pdksh and ast-ksh provide ksh-like functionality, each 
package creates a link so that /usr/bin/ksh points to the "real" binary, 
whether pdksh.exe or ast-ksh.exe.  However, the two packages are 
well-behaved -- they will NOT overwrite a pre-existing link. SO, if you 
install both packages,  you should MANUALLY check that /usr/bin/ksh 
points to the binary you wish to use as the default ksh.  If not, you'll 
need to correct that MANUALLY.   To make ast-ksh the 'default' ksh, do this:

  cd /usr/bin/
  rm -f ksh
  ln -fs ast-ksh.exe ksh

To make pdksh the 'default' ksh, do this

  cd /usr/bin/
  rm -f ksh
  ln -fs pdksh.exe ksh
<end quote>

And perhaps the pdksh maintainer could include similar text each time 
s/he releases a new version?

--Chuck