Re: '/bin/sh -c' with multiple args

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

    Date:        Thu, 4 Dec 2025 19:59:54 -0500
    From:        Jan Schaumann <jschauma%netmeister.org@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <aTIuigJNKVKuv0y2%netmeister.org@localhost>

  | Thanks everybody - this is the part that wasn't
  | obvious to me from the description.  A curious use
  | case, it seems to me.

Not really, -c (to run a short literal script) is a very often used
feature of sh that has been around for a VERY long time.  Giving addition
args to that script is a much less often used feature, but can be very
useful.

  | I wonder if the manual page could be improved upon here.

It already says, in the "Invocation" section (near the start):

     If command line arguments besides the options have been specified, and
     neither -c nor -s was given, then the shell treats the first argument as
     the name of a file from which to read commands (a shell script).  This
     also becomes $0 and the remaining arguments are set as the positional
     parameters of the shell ($1, $2, etc).  Otherwise, if -c was given, then
     the first argument, which must exist, is taken to be a string of sh
     commands to execute.  Then if any additional arguments follow the command
     string, those arguments become $0, $1, ...  Otherwise, if additional
     arguments were given (which implies that -s was set) those arguments
     become $1, $2, ...  If $0 has not been set by the preceding processing,
     it will be set to argv[0] as passed to the shell, which will usually be
     the name of the shell itself.  If -s was given, or if neither -c nor any
     additional (non-option) arguments were present, the shell reads commands
     from its standard input.

The relevant part of that is:

     Otherwise, if -c was given, then the first argument, which must exist,
     is taken to be a string of sh commands to execute.

That "commands" is using the word as it is used elsewhere

And about any extra args in that case:

     Then if any additional arguments follow the command string, those
     arguments become $0, $1, ...

And recall, this is all about starting sh - not about what happens when
some other command is run.

The description of the -c option says:

	           -c             Read commands from the command_string
                                  operand instead of, or in addition to, from
                                  the standard input.

(forget the "in addition to" part here, that's an obscure ash shell addition).

There is a whole section ("Commands") which describes what that means.

What do you think should be done to improve it?

kre