That certainly sounds like a bug :/

	You should probably submit a pr (see the website for reporting
	bugs or use 'send-pr').

	If you're feeling adventurous you could download the -current
	ksh source (ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/src/bin/ksh)
	and see if it will compile on your box, and if so, does it still
	have the problem.

		David/absolute

                  -=-  "Maybe god will cover up his eyes"  -=-

On Sat, 7 Nov 1998, Devin Ganger wrote:

> I'm a new NetBSD user and have just installed NetBSD 1.3.2 on my
> SparcStation 2.  Although I'm really loving it (it makes much better use of
> that hardware than SunOS 4.1.4, and I'm looking forward to next getting my
> Sun 3/80 up and running), there's one quirk that is annoying the heck outta
> me.
> 
> I am a ksh user, and I've got a fairly standard .profile/.kshrc pair that I
> use on almost all Unix boxes I'm on.  One of the things that I like to do is
> have a custom PS1 prompt that shows the hostname, current username, and pwd.
> On my work systems, which are Solaris 2.x and SunOS 4.1.4, I came up with
> the following:
> 
> PS1IDSTRING="($(hostname):$(whoami))"
> PS1='${PS1IDSTRING} ${PWD} $ '
> 
> This works out very nicely, and I can do the following sort of things and
> have the prompt follow along:
> 
> (bofh:devin) /home/devin $ cd public_html
> (bofh:devin) /home/devin/public_html $ su root
> Password:
> (bofh:root) /home/devin/public_html $ telnet foo
> 
> SunOS 5.6 (foo)
> Username: devin
> Password:
> 
> (foo:devin) /home/devin $
> 
> When I try to process these statements in NetBSD, the shell will lock up, as
> if its running an infinite loop.  I have to ^C to get the prompt back.
> Putting echo statements in my .kshrc shows that everything is getting
> executed up to these lines.  I've tried editing them, but there is no
> combination that I've been able to find that allows the NetBSD ksh to update
> each item in the prompt string as necessary.
> 
> Am I doing something wrong, is this a compatibility issue, or is there a
> possible bug in the NetBSD ksh?
> 
> --
> Devin L. Ganger
> "And Hell does not always look like Hell.  On a good day, it can look
> a lot like L.A."    -- Dr. Eugene Sands, _Playing God_
>