root /etc/csh

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:36:24PM -0500, Dan wrote:
> Jeremy Chadwick(koitsu at FreeBSD.org)@2008.11.15 18:32:39 -0800:
> > > Problem solved. Why doesn't FreeBSD ship bash and other shells besides
> > > the `sh' linked statically is beyond me. It wouldn't break ports, would
> > > it?
> > 
> > It does break ports.  Very, very badly.  I know because I've personally
> > attempted replacing /bin/sh with bash as a "I have a weekend to spare"
> > project.
> 
> You misunderstand. I do not suggest replacing the standard shell with
> bash, I suggest that the shells available in FreeBSD, even through ports
> to be linked statically so they can be used for rescue and recovery.
> If the default make instructions told to compile statically, it wouldn't
> break the ports.

You're right -- I'm still not understanding.  So let me cover the bases
here:

1) The entire ports and FreeBSD build system (see: world) rely heavily
on /bin/sh-isms and do not work with bash.  bash being compiled
statically will not solve these problems.

2) Changing the root users' shell is not recommended.  There are a lot
of reasons for this, but as mentioned, the main one is single-user
scenarios (where /usr hasn't been mounted yet, thus /usr/local/bin/bash
is not available -- and if it's installed as /bin/bash, the libraries
/bin/bash link to are not available).

3) You can build bash statically; make WITH_STATIC_BASH=true.  I do
not know the true reason why the port is not built statically by
default, but I can give you a damn good reason why it shouldn't be:
complete and total wasted memory.

Take into consideration environments where there are hundreds (or at
my place of work, thousands) of users logged into a machine at once.
Many of those are going to have /usr/local/bin/bash as their shell.
A statically-linked version of bash would waste significant amounts
of memory, while a dynamically-linked/shared version would ease that
pain.  The same applies for any static vs. dynamic program.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |