Re: bin/37493 (/bin/sh exits if shift fails, but shouldn't)

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

The following reply was made to PR bin/37493; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: bin/37493 (/bin/sh exits if shift fails, but shouldn't)
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2016 01:17:40 +0700

 I think this PR can be closed.   Nothing has changed in the
 past 7 years (nothing in sh anyway), and POSIX (now) says explicitly...
 
 (relating to shift)
 
 EXIT STATUS
 
     If the n operand is invalid or is greater than "$#", this may be
     considered a syntax error and a non-interactive shell may exit;
     if the shell does not exit in this case, a non-zero exit status
     shall be returned. Otherwise, zero shall be returned.
 
 which explicitly makes what NetBSD's /bin/sh (and other shells) does
 acceptable (it also makes what bash, etc, do acceptable).
 
 That is, no portable sh script can assume that a shift with a count
 greater than the number of available args will leave the shell running
 afterwards.
 
 So, as there is no real requirement to change this, and it hasn't been
 changed already, I think the PR can just go away.
 
 kre