Re: CVS commit: src/usr.bin/env

[Taylor R Campbell <riastradh%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

> Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2024 22:17:31 -0000 (UTC)
> From: christos%astron.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas)
> 
> In article <20241028113037.B6B31F98E%cvs.NetBSD.org@localhost>,
> Kimmo Suominen <source-changes-d%NetBSD.org@localhost> wrote:
> >Implement "env -C dir" to chdir
> >
> >Use err(3) to expose errno(2) if chdir(2) (or unsetenv(3)) fails.
> 
> We should just start from the FreeBSD copy I think because it has more
> features.

I'm not sure that `more features' is good...

Some of these options are very clearly within the scope of env(1) and
worthwhile, like -u -- it already has a way to set one variable, or to
clear all variables, just not to clear one variable.  -0 is reasonably
necessary for the output to be reliable in all environments even if
variables have embedded newlines.

In contrast, processing /etc/login.conf (-L/-U) is not clearly a
reasonable thing for a basic unprivileged tool like this to have baked
into it.  Having a special-purpose string formatter (-S) with
substitutions strikes me as bizarre (why not just use printf or vis?).
I'm having a hard time imagining where alternate path searching is
important to bake into env(1) and not just into the caller, e.g. by
doing `env -u PATH $(PATH=/altpath which foo) ...'.