Re: config.sub/config.guess using nonportable $(...) substitutions

[Russ Allbery]

Warren Young <warren@etr-usa.com> writes:

> Since all versions of Solaris postdate this, Sun really should have made
> /bin/sh a POSIX shell from the start, but for whatever reason, did not,
> and now that decision's causing us problems.

My recollection is that there was concern at the time with portability of
shell scripts written for SunOS.  Sun chose to keep /bin/sh (and various
other tools) compatible with SunOS rather than compatible with POSIX and
introduced the /usr/xpg4 path for those who wanted POSIX behavior.  That
trade-off of immediate compatibility for future pain has been causing
future pain ever since.

Interestingly, at around the same time they made that decision, they also
dropped bcopy and bzero from the standard library, provoking a ton of
porting problems.  (They reversed that decision later and added them
back.)

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle@eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>