[R-sig-Debian] Fw: Default shell in Debian 6 of R is SH instead of BASH

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Johannes is entirely correct.

Debian just assumes a sh-compatible shell.  I think we're now on dash, it was
ash for a while.  These are used to keep the _boot_ system smaller where we
have not used bash as the default /bin/sh in maybe a decade. Some, but few,
scripts were adjusted.  Users still default to bash.

R, for the record, tries very hard not to default to things like bashisms or
GNU extensions to make as it tries (and succeeds) to build everywhere.

What shell to use _locally_ is a local policy decision and can be
overridden.  If your scripts need bash, you can could
 - either rewrite them to only sh constructs (a pain)
 - override the Debian default and make bash the default

This has little to nothing to do with R-on-Debian so this list is the wrong
place.

Dirk

-- 
Dirk Eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org | http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com