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Aardvark Mark IV


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ID Category Severity Type Date Submitted Last Update
0001601 [1003.1(2016/18)/Issue7+TC2] Shell and Utilities Objection Error 2022-08-23 15:09 2022-11-08 14:13
Reporter kre View Status public  
Assigned To
Priority normal Resolution Accepted  
Status Applied  
Name Robert Elz
Organization
User Reference
Section XCU 2.14 cd
Page Number 2562
Line Number 82969 - 82971
Interp Status ---
Final Accepted Text See Desired Action
Summary 0001601: when cd sets OLDPWD not all shells export it to the environment
Description The cd utility description includes thus

   If, during the execution of the above steps, the PWD environment variable is
   set, the OLDPWD environment variable shall also be set [...]

(what it gets set to is not the issue). The same sentence appears in Issue 8
draft 2.1 (lines 82512-4)

For OLDPWD to be an "environment variable" (as defined in XBD 8.1) it needs to
be exported in shell terminology. Otherwise it would simply be a variable
(as for example used in the getopts and read utilities).

It turns out that only about half the shells I have available to test
cause OLDPWD to be exported. The ash derived shells all do, as does
ksh93 and zsh. But bash, bosh, pdksh, mksh, and yash do not. I don't
know what ksh88 does.

The simple test is:
     unset OLDPWD; # so it is not exported from the current environment
     cd /anywhere/that/exists
     env | grep OLDPWD

All shells I tested set the variable OLDPWD in this case, they just
don't all export it (to make it become an environment variable).

One could also discuss PWD in a similar vein, but for PWD things become
unspecified if the user/application sets or unsets it, so that one gets
to be impossible to easily test.
Desired Action Change the sentence above by deleting the word "environment" after OLDPWD,
and then add another sentence

    It is unspecified whether, when setting OLDPWD, the shell also causes
    it to be exported if it was not already.

Or something like that.

Alternatively, if the standard really is intending to require implementations
to export OLDPWD when it is set by the cd command, then it clearly needs to be
more explicit in how it states that.
Tags tc3-2008
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- Issue History
Date Modified Username Field Change
2022-08-23 15:09 kre New Issue
2022-08-23 15:09 kre Name => Robert Elz
2022-08-23 15:09 kre Section => XCU 2.14 cd
2022-08-23 15:09 kre Page Number => 2562
2022-08-23 15:09 kre Line Number => 82969 - 82971
2022-10-24 15:50 nick Interp Status => ---
2022-10-24 15:50 nick Final Accepted Text => See Desired Action
2022-10-24 15:50 nick Status New => Resolved
2022-10-24 15:50 nick Resolution Open => Accepted
2022-10-24 15:50 nick Tag Attached: issue8
2022-10-24 15:51 nick Tag Detached: issue8
2022-10-24 15:51 nick Tag Attached: tc3-2008
2022-11-08 14:13 geoffclare Status Resolved => Applied


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