shell/README: describe special builtins

Signed-off-by: Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>
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Denys Vlasenko 2010-05-17 23:51:00 +02:00
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Various bits of what is known about busybox shells, in no particular order.
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/
Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
2008-02-14
ash: does not restore tty pgrp if killed by HUP. Symptom: Midnight Commander
is backgrounded if you started ash under it, and then killed it with HUP.
2007-11-23
hush: fixed bogus glob handling; fixed exec <"$1"; added test and echo builtins
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap01.html
Shell & Utilities
2007-06-13
hush: exec <"$1" doesn't do parameter subst
It says that any of the standard utilities may be implemented
as a regular shell built-in. It gives a list of utilities which
are usually implemented that way (and some of them can only
be implemented as built-ins, like "alias"):
2007-05-24
hush: environment-related memory leak plugged, with net code size
decrease.
alias
bg
cd
command
false
fc
fg
getopts
jobs
kill
newgrp
pwd
read
true
umask
unalias
wait
2007-05-24
hush: '( echo ${name )' will show syntax error message, but prompt
doesn't return (need to press <enter>). Pressing Ctrl-C, <enter>,
'( echo ${name )' again, Ctrl-C segfaults.
2007-05-21
hush: environment cannot be handled by libc routines as they are leaky
(by API design and thus unfixable): hush will leak memory in this script,
bash does not:
pid=$$
while true; do
unset t;
t=111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
export t
ps -o vsz,pid,comm | grep " $pid "
done
The fix is to not use setenv/putenv/unsetenv but manipulate env ourself. TODO.
hush: meanwhile, first three command subst bugs mentioned below are fixed. :)
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V3_chap02.html
Shell Command Language
2007-05-06
hush: more bugs spotted. Comparison with bash:
bash-3.2# echo "TEST`date;echo;echo`BEST"
TESTSun May 6 09:21:05 CEST 2007BEST [we dont strip eols]
bash-3.2# echo "TEST`echo '$(echo ZZ)'`BEST"
TEST$(echo ZZ)BEST [we execute inner echo]
bash-3.2# echo "TEST`echo "'"`BEST"
TEST'BEST [we totally mess up this one]
bash-3.2# echo `sleep 5`
[Ctrl-C should work, Ctrl-Z should do nothing][we totally mess up this one]
bash-3.2# if true; then
> [Ctrl-C]
bash-3.2# [we re-issue "> "]
bash-3.2# if echo `sleep 5`; then
> true; fi [we execute sleep before "> "]
It says that shell must implement special built-ins. Special built-ins
differ from regular ones by the fact that variable assignments
done on special builtin is *PRESERVED*. That is,
2007-05-04
hush: made ctrl-Z/C work correctly for "while true; do true; done"
(namely, it backgrounds/interrupts entire "while")
VAR=VAL special_builtin; echo $VAR
2007-05-03
hush: new bug spotted: Ctrl-C on "while true; do true; done" doesn't
work right:
# while true; do true; done
[1] 0 true <-- pressing Ctrl-C several times...
[2] 0 true
[3] 0 true
Segmentation fault
should print VAL.
2007-05-03
hush: update on "sleep 1 | exit 3; echo $?" bug.
parse_stream_outer() repeatedly calls parse_stream().
parse_stream() is now fixed to stop on ';' in this example,
fixing it (parse_stream_outer() will call parse_stream() 1st time,
execute the parse tree, call parse_stream() 2nd time and execute the tree).
But it's not the end of story.
In more complex situations we _must_ parse way farther before executing.
Example #2: "{ sleep 1 | exit 3; echo $?; ...few_lines... } >file".
Because of redirection, we cannot execute 1st pipe before we parse it all.
We probably need to learn to store $var expressions in parse tree.
Debug printing of parse tree would be nice too.
(Another distinction is that an error in special built-in should
abort the shell, but this is not such a critical difference,
and moreover, at least bash's "set" does not follow this rule,
which is even codified in autoconf now...).
2007-04-28
hush: Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Z for single NOFORK commands are working.
Memory and other resource leaks (opendir) are not addressed
(testcase is "rm -i" interrupted by ctrl-c).
List of special builtins:
2007-04-21
hush: "sleep 5 | sleep 6" + Ctrl-Z + fg seems to work.
"rm -i" + Ctrl-C, "sleep 5" + Ctrl-Z still doesn't work
for SH_STANDALONE case :(
. file
: [argument...]
break [n]
continue [n]
eval [argument...]
exec [command [argument...]]
exit [n]
export name[=word]...
export -p
readonly name[=word]...
readonly -p
return [n]
set [-abCefhmnuvx] [-o option] [argument...]
set [+abCefhmnuvx] [+o option] [argument...]
set -- [argument...]
set -o
set +o
shift [n]
times
trap n [condition...]
trap [action condition...]
unset [-fv] name...
2007-04-21
hush: fixed non-backgrounding of "sleep 1 &" and totally broken
"sleep 1 | sleep 2 &". Noticed a bug where successive jobs
get numbers 1,2,3 even when job #1 has exited before job# 2 is started.
(bash reuses #1 in this case)
In practice, no one uses this obscure feature - none of these builtins
gives any special reasons to play such dirty tricks.
2007-04-21
hush: "sleep 1 | exit 3; echo $?" prints 0 because $? is substituted
_before_ pipe gets executed!! run_list_real() already has "pipe;echo"
parsed and handed to it for execution, so it sees "pipe"; "echo 0".
However. This section says that *function invocation* should act
similar to special built-in. That is, variable assignments
done on function invocation should be preserved after function invocation.
2007-04-21
hush: removed setsid() and made job control sort-of-sometimes-work.
Ctrl-C in "rm -i" works now except for SH_STANDALONE case.
"sleep 1 | exit 3" + "echo $?" works, "sleep 1 | exit 3; echo $?"
shows exitcode 0 (should be 3). "sleep 1 | sleep 2 &" fails horribly.
2007-04-14
lash, hush: both do setsid() and as a result don't have ctty!
Ctrl-C doesn't work for any child (try rm -i), etc...
lash: bare ">file" doesn't create a file (hush works)
This is significant: it is not unthinkable to want to run a function
with some variables set to special values. But because of the above,
it does not work: variable will "leak" out of the function.