topic Re: Difference between $( <cmd> ) and `<cmd>` - FOLLOWUP in Operating System - HP-UX

Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Bob_Vance — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:44:53 GMT

Just wanted to follow up on the previous thread:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=833315&admit=716493758+1110888850877+28353475

The HP Posix shell behavior is interesting.
'bash', which is a superset of the Posix shell, does *not* behave the same way:

hpux1 ## echo $(cat <<-"EOF"
'NLS_CHARACTERSET'
EOF
)
"NLS_CHARACTERSET"

linux1 ## echo $(cat <<-"EOF"
'NLS_CHARACTERSET'
EOF
)
'NLS_CHARACTERSET'

Also, 'ksh' has the same behavior as 'sh' on HPUX (hard-to-soft change), while, on Linux, 'ksh' behaves the same as 'bash'.

I'm wondering which is "correct".
However, I can see no reason to change the hard quotes to soft, so I would lean toward 'bash's interpretation.

bv

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Steven E. Protter — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 12:01:01 GMT

Very interesting.

I missed the first thread.

I though bash was supposed to be a posix compliant shell.

HP-UX's default shell is posix and ksh is supposed to be almost exactly the same as posix.

I would tend to think if something was wrong, or perhaps the better word is non-compliant, it would be Linux.

They added some enhancements to cron that were never accepted by the proprietary Unix community. Thats just an example.

Maybe just a bug.

I'd suggest linking these two threads into a Linux bugzilla report and see if you get a satisfactory explanation.

SEP

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Bob_Vance — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:36:34 GMT

I once had a discussion with the bash maintainer about another HP Posix shell difference in the past. I was thinking of sending this his way to see what he has to say.

Again, I can see no reason for changing the ' to " as HP does.

bv

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

c_51 — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:00:38 GMT

as a bit more information,

hp, solaris, and aix all have the same behavior, while linux is different.

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Bob_Vance — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:42:00 GMT

>HPUX,Solaris,AIX

Well, that *is* interesting.
I wonder what in the world would be the reason for that behavior?!?!?

bv

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Bob_Vance — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 19:29:04 GMT

Reading the Posix shell spec, it's clear that HPUX Posix shell is wrong.

I discussed this with the 'bash' maintainer. It turns out that this is a bug in ksh88 which was fixed in ksh93. The "posix shell" in hpux, aix, and solaris are based on ksh88.

Indeed, in ksh on HPUX, the version is still
"Version 11/16/88"
.

Seems strange that this bug would persist this long.

I hope that some HPer out there might carry this "inside" ?

bv

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Alessandro Pilati — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:40:07 GMT

Bob,
interesting question.
Only for information, have a look also to this reference document about shells:

http://bcebhagalpur.net/tutorials/shell/shell.htm

http://www.kornshell.com/doc/faq.html

Cheers,
Alex

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Bob_Vance — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 09:00:42 GMT

Thanks, Alex!

bv

Re: Difference between $( ) and `` - FOLLOWUP

Dennis Handly — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:11:30 GMT

>wanted to follow up on the previous thread:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Languages-and-Scripting/Difference-between-lt-command-gt-and-lt-command-gt/m-p/4890778

>I hope that some HPer out there might carry this "inside"?

Well, it looks like nothing has changed for 11.31, even though it is Unix 2003 branded.

Looking at tusc, shows the double quotes being written to the sh###.1 temp file. So it is bad before cat(1) reads it and echo echoes it.