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- From: Stephen Usher <steve@earth.ox.ac.uk>
- Subject: Re: seduid scripts
- Date: Tue, 23 Mar 93 8:06:14 BST
- In-Reply-To: <9303230511.AA23591@netcom4.netcom.com>; from "Eric R. Smith" at Mar 22, 93 9:11 pm
-
- >Basically, because we already have one path separator (\). Introducing
- >another one is messy, especially since GEMDOS has historically allowed
- >/ in file names (indeed many users have files with names like
- >"2/12/92". I realize that Unix aware people would never do such a silly
- >thing, but unfortunately lots of ST users are not Unix aware. If I were
- >designing TOS from scratch I would use / as the path separator, but
- >unfortunately it's much too late for that.
-
- This is true for all cases except this one. #! is a derivative of Unix, it
- has nothing to do with TOS, scripts with it at the top assume they are
- running under Unix, hence they will not be refering to filenames with
- forward slashes in them.
-
- >Also, by not using / for anything in the kernel, we provide a way to
- >represent Unix file names containing \; namely, a Posix library could
- >simply swap / and \ everywhere they occur in file names..
-
- This is not the case here, for a library exec to do what you ask it will
- have to read the file header, rewrite it, call exec and then somehow change
- it back again! This is a specific case where "it should be in the library"
- doesn't work.
-
- The #! line should be thought of as the file's magic number, it tells the
- kernel what type of executable it is, and hence what to do with it. It is a
- special case.
-
- Steve
-
- --
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Computer Systems Administrator, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Oxford University.
- E-Mail: steve@uk.ac.ox.earth (JANET) steve@earth.ox.ac.uk (Internet).
- Tel:- Oxford (0865) 282110 (UK) or +44 865 282110 (International).
-