ksh88e

[Lawrence V. Cipriani]

In article <9831 at b11.ingr.com> waldronr at infonode.ingr.com writes:
>Can anyone tell me what major (or even minor) changes were made between
>versions 88d and 88e of ksh? We are considering purchasing an upgrade,
>and want to know what we will gain.

See below.

>Also, when was 88e released?

Depends on which ksh88e; the latest is ksh 11/16/88e.

>What is the (rumored) release date of 88f?

It is in beta test right now.  I was told Korn hopes to have it finalized
by the end of January.  I'll post a note when it's available.

Here is the list of changes to ksh-88e [and ksh-88f so far].
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a list of changes that have been made since the 11/16/88 version
of ksh. 

1.	New features in 11/16/88[abcdef]
	a.  All characters of alias names can contain non-special
	    characters, not just the first.  A / is not a valid alias
	    character.
	b.  The vi % directive has been added to 11/16/88c
	c.  A new [[...]] -C option returns true for contiguous files.
	    This option returns false on systems that do not support
	    contiguous files.
	d.  Setting REPLY to the null string in a select command causes
	    the selection list to get refreshed in 11/16/88d.
	e.  Unary minus added for arithmetic expressions to increase
	    compatibility with system V test command.
	f.  Starting with 11/16/88e, The vi directive '#' has been changed
	    so that each line of the command is turned into a comment.
	    Also, if the first character of the command is a '#', the '#'
	    in front of each line is deleted.   Starting with 11/16/88f,
	    the '#' is also inserted and deleted in front of each ';' and '|'.
	g.  The message for EOF with ignoreeof has changed in 11/16/88e.
	h.  A SOCKETS option has been added for machines with the BSD
	    socket calls so that scripts can connect to sockets via
	    redirection.  See the README file for more details.
	i.  Starting with 11/16/88e, the behavior of 'ksh script' where
	    script is not a shell script has been changed.  If ksh detects
	    that script is an a.out, a cannot exec error message is generated.

2.	Bugs fixed in 11/16/88a for default OPTIONS
	a.  Files containing a \ were not matched correctly with patterns.
	b.  read without arguments no longer references location 0.
	c.  The value of integer exported variables was not inherited
	    correctly in some cases.
	d.  The characters ()|&\ in IFS did cause word splitting when ksh
	    expanded commands. 
	e.  $! expanded to 0 before any background jobs were run, rather
	    than to the null string.  The value of $! was not reset to
	    null when running a script by name.
	f.  On some machines, the shell would core dump if the variable
	    LINENO was exported.
	g.  The [[ ]] command did not handle multiple && and || without
	    parenthesis grouping.
	h.  On some BSD implementations, terminal setting were being
	    incorrectly reset when using vi-mode. 
	i.  The execution of traps that write to standard output got
	    lost when the trap occurred while executing command substitution
	    of a built-in command. 
	j.  The noclobber option now only applies to ordinary files.
	k.  The value of RANDOM changes when ksh creates a subshell.
	l.  Some syntax error messages had extra backslashes in them.
	m.  The expansion ${#name[number]} was not returning the string
	    length of array element number.
	n.  ksh did not work correctly in some cases when there was
	    no search permission in the current directory.
	o.  A pipeline would hang if the last element of the pipeline
	    was a shell construct that created a lot of child processes.
	    For example, cat file | while read line;do /bin/true;done
	p.  getopts has been fixed to agree with the description in
	    the man page.  Previous ksh initialized OPTIND to 0, not 1,
	    and did not handle the case with a leading : as described.
	q.  If the name of the directory you are in contained a :,
	    a cd command to a relative pathname did always work correctly.
	r.  read -s now saves commands in the history file even when
	    read has been redirected from a file.
	s.  Some here documents containing command substitution with
	    a command that read from standard input didn't work
	    correctly.
	t.  (exec >&-; echo $(command) >&2) no longer runs command
	    with file descriptor 1 closed.
	u.  The <ESC>* command of vi and emacs inserted an extra
	    space when exactly one file matched.
	v.  A bug in vi edit mode caused a 'p' command to fail
	    after a 'D' command on some machines.
	w.  Reseeding the random number generator now guarantees
	    the same random sequence.
	x.  The results command substitution with built-in commands
	    that produced over 1K of output was sometimes incorrect.
	y.  set -A, without an argument, now produces an error message.
	    set -A name ... no longer causes the positional parameters
	    to be reset as an unintentional side effect.
	z.  Unterminated here-documents do not generate syntax errors
	    unless the -n option is on.
	aa. Job control now works for functions as it did with ksh-i.
	bb. The exit status of a pipeline whose last element is a built-in
	    command is now correct.
	cc. ksh no longer dumps core when the last element of a pipeline
	    is a built-in command with an invalid parameter expansion.
	dd. A trap on CHLD is no longer triggered by processes in the
	    current pipeline.
	ee. One systems without readdir(), filename generation left
	    open files by mistake.
	ff. traps ignored in a shell script were sometimes reset to
	    caught when functions were invoked.
	gg. The trace (set -x ) of [[ x < y ]] and [[ x > y]] was incorrect.
	hh. foobar() ; no longer core dumps.
	ii. A trap on continue from within a select loop no correctly
	    when the trap occurs while reading from the terminal.
	jj. The r command correctly handles numerical replacements so
	    that r 3=4 now works.
	kk. Long lines (>3K) no longer causes a core dump with read.
	ll. The command substitution $(name=value) no longer causes a
	    core dump.
	mm. With the vi edit mode on some systems, extra characters were
	    left on the screen when the kill or erase characters were
	    preceded by a backslash.
	nn. After a dot script that couldn't be found, a trap command
	    in a script could cause a core dump.
	oo. Redirection with read of the form, read x <&3, was causing
	    the seek position on unit 3 to be positioned incorrectly.
	pp. When an invalid alias name is given, ksh now prints the
	    correct error message.
	qq. On systems with job control, if you escaped to a shell that
	    terminated abnormally, the calling process would hang.

3.	Bugs fixed in 11/16/88b for default OPTIONS
	a.  ${x-"{a}"b} now expands to {a}b when x is not set.
	b.  ksh no longer core dumps with print -s when HISTFILE changed.
	c.  Tab stripping of numbered here-documents now works.
	d.  The deprecated, sh -t, now works the same as System V shell.
	e.  Attempting to list autoloaded functions no longer core dumps.

4.	Bugs fixed in 11/16/88c for default OPTIONS
	a.  The process id for background jobs killed from scripts was
	    incorrect.
	b.  The wait built-in did not always return the correct value when
	    there was more than one background job.
	c.  ksh dumped core while in read with stderr redirected and in
	    emacs mode when it received an signal that had a trap set.

5.	Bugs fixed in 11/16/88d for default OPTIONS
	a.  With the monitor option on with systems without job control,
	    login shells no longer print an extraneous 'running jobs'
	    message with a|b, where b is not found.
	b.  On systems where the behavior of the echo builtin depends
	    on the location of echo in the PATH variable, ksh no longer
	    core dumps if the PATH does not have a directory containing
	    an echo command.
	c.  return with an argument greater than 256 no longer causes
	    a core dump.
	d.  Tests on files whose names are null return false on all systems.
	e.  In some instances $0 was being incorrectly set after the
	    dot command was invoked with arguments inside a script.
	f.  The line number enclosed in [] when ksh reports a syntax error
	    has been corrected to be the first line of the command that
	    it is reading.
	g.  A trap on EXIT after a syntax error sometimes inserted an
	    extra character before the trap command text. 
	h.  for i in ...; do echo ${i[@]};done no longer causes a subscript
	    error.
	i.  If the read built-in was interrupted, the terminal was not
	    always restored to the state it was in before read.
	j.  Output from background status changes with the monitor mode are
	    now written to standard error.
	k.  Executing a function interactively no longer causes SIGTERM
	    to be caught.
	l.  Using _ as an array variable no longer causes a core dump.
	m.  Unsetting a function more than once no longer causes core
	    dumps or other undesired side effects.
	n.  The code to process the substring operator ## was changed
	    so that the time was no longer quadratic in the length
	    of the string.
	o.  A bug that caused a job to disappear from the jobs table
	    after sending it a CONT signal has been fixed.
	p.  On systems where a null pathname is not the same as .,
	    the command 'cd .' would fail if the environment was cleared
	    before executing ksh.
	q.  In vi-mode, the screen did not always get refreshed correctly
	    when an insert followed a delete in front of a control character.
	r.  A bug in getopts that could cause a core dump when getopts
	    was called with fewer arguments on subsequent calls was fixed.
	s.  In vi-mode, ^V^M now enters ^M, not ^J on most systems.
	t.  On systems with job control, the kill command now sends out
	    SIGCONT signal after the signal has been sent, not before.
	u.  If the shell was interrupted while processing the .profile
	    file, the $ENV file was sometimes echoed to the terminal.

6.	Bugs fixed in 11/16/88e for default OPTIONS
	a.  The code for item n from the d point release was omitted
	    but included in this release.
	b.  A script that uses edit modes now restores the terminal
	    modes with it receive a termination signal.  Also, the
	    initial process group is restored for job control shells.
	c.  The standard input for background jobs was not set to
	    /dev/null in some cases where it should have been.
	d.  The value of $? now gets set correctly to indicate an
	    error after eval fails because of a syntax error.
	e.  The line discipline ^O bit is now cleared by ksh on some
	    systems that use sys/termios.h.  Earlier versions only cleared
	    the ^O bit for BSD systems.
	f.  The suid_exec program has been modified to fix security
	    problems that could arise on systems that have symbolic links
	    but do not have the seteuid() system call.
	g.  The precedence for compound arithmetic assignment operators
	    such as *= was incorrectly set at the precedence of the
	    operator rather than the precedence for assignment.
	h.  The suspend character is now disabled when the last process of
	    a pipeline is not stoppable to prevent deadlock.
	i.  An extra secondary prompt was printed whenever a here-document
	    line contained a partial delimiter.
	j.  The EXIT trap will be executed for each function in the calling
	    chain when exit is called and when the maximum recursion level
	    (currently 128) is reached.  Also return now behaves the same
	    as exit outside a function or a dot script and inside a subshell.  
	k.  The value of $? no longer changes with a compound [[...]] command.
	l.  The jobs command now correctly reports 'no such job' when you
	    specify a pid that is not part of any running job.
	m.  The legal names for restricted shells have been reduced to
	    rsh, krsh, and rksh.
	n.  The vi, r, f, and @ directives now process ^V correctly.  Also,
	    the r directive updates the screen correctly after you back
	    up to a control character and replace it with a non control char.
	o.  The command, $x > file, where x is not set, no longer core dumps.
	p.  When the read is redirected from a file it no longer issues the
	    secondary prompt when the line is continued with a \.
	q.  Variables that have attributes, but whose values are unset,
	    are now displayed with typeset, export, and readonly.
	s.  Set, without arguments, now displays the name-value pairs even
	    when preceded with a variable assignment list.
	t.  set -a now causes assignments of the form ${x=value} to get
	    the export attribute.
	u.  Arithmetic expansion, $((...)), inside here-documents no longer
	    causes subsequent parameter expansions to have extra \ inserted.
	v.  A bug that could cause the shell to go into an infinite
	    loop while creating the history has been fixed.
	w.  true and false are now built-in commands rather than aliases so
	    that correct results are produced when invoked with extraneous
	    arguments.
	x.  A tab character near the end of a long prompt no longer
	    causes the shell to hang.
	y.  An expansion of the form $((...)) is processed as an arithmetic
	    expansion only when the inner parenthesis match.  Otherwise,
	    it will be processed as a nested command substitution.
	z.  Unsetting a function no longer causes the whence builtin to
	    give incorrect results for that name.
	aa. Errors detected while expanding the PS1 prompt no longer
	    leave the shell in an undefined state.
	bb. A bug that caused the shell to hang in read when a
	    coprocess (cmd |&) terminated has been fixed.
	cc. A bug in getopts that caused a core dump when standard error
	    was redirected has been fixed.
	dd. Testing for file access with null file names now returns false
	    now on all systems. 
	ee. A bug with [[...]] that caused quoting of patterns following the
	    = and != operators to give incorrect results has been fixed.
	ff. A bug with nested $() of builtins, where inner $() was enclosed
	    in double quotes has been fixed.
	gg. A bug that caused incorrect results when the -x trace option
	    was enabled and command substitution of a builtin command 
	    produced no output was fixed.
	hh. A bug that prevented set -e from exiting with pipelines has
	    been fixed.
	ii. Interactive shells that trap TERM, and then reset the trap,
	    no longer exit when they receive a TERM signal.
	jj. When inserting text in vi mode, the kill character deletes
	    only the insertion, not the whole line. 
	kk. A bug with eval that occurred when a word ended in a \ has
	    been fixed.
	ll. typeset -f fname now returns false after function fname
	    has been unset.
	mm. A bug in trap that caused a command to be interpreted as a
	    trap number if the first character was a digit has been fixed.
	nn. A bug that caused a trap action of return to not work correctly
	    when an interrupt occured during read has been fixed.
	oo. A bug that could cause the exported value of an integer variable
	    that has been imported and modified to be incorrect has been fixed.
	pp. A bug that caused set -n to incorrectly report subscript errors
	    has been fixed.
	qq. The select list variable is now set to null when none of the
	    given choices is not selected.  Previously it was unset. 
	rr. The pattern */foo, now also matches symbolic links to non-existent
	    files.
	ss. The whence command no longer terminates when it doesn't find
	    one of the names.

7.	Bugs fixed in 11/16/88f for default OPTIONS
	a.  Running command&, did not cause the standard input to be
	    redirected from /dev/null when following a built-in command
	    that had standard input redirected.
	b.  The path search no longer terminates with exec returns the
	    ENAMETOOLONG error message because the name need not be
	    too long for other directories in the PATH.
	c.  A bug that could cause a file descriptor to be closed-on-exec
	    has been fixed.
	d.  A bug with logical or (||) and logical and (&&) in an arithmetic
	    expression that occured when the left hand side was an identifier
	    has been fixed.
	e.  A bug in the 'e' point release that caused typeset -f name to
	    return true when name was the name of a built-in has been fixed.
	f.  Changing the attribute of a variable from integer to left-justified
	    no longer causes a core dump when the variable doesn't have a value.
	g.  Changing the attribute of an array variable that contains a
	    single element whose index is non-zero, now works correctly.
	h.  A bug in the 'e' point release that prevented an exit command
	    within a .profile or ENV file to exit the shell has been fixed.
	i.  The edit modes no longer uses <cr> when positioning the cursor
	    with read when you do not specify a prompt.  This prevents
	    characters from earlier echo and commands from being erased.
	j.  An error from a built-in executed in a subshell no longer
	    causes the sub-shell to exit, for example, (cd /dev/null;echo $?).
	k.  On invocation, ksh now causes the arguments after -c string to
	    become $0 $1 ... as it does with System V shell.  Previously,
	    they became $1 $2 ....
	l.  A bug in the 'e' point release that caused some comment lines
	    in the ENV file to be entered into the history file has been
	    fixed.
	m.  A right parenthesis no longer causes an argument expected error
	    message when used a an operand within a unary test such as
	    test -d ")".
	n.  The whence builtin no longer prepends two // when an executable
	    is in / and / is a component in PATH.  Also, explicit references
	    to . in the PATH variable will not show up in whence output.
	o.  The terminal state is correctly restored when read is interrupted
	    when in the edit modes.  On some systems the state wasn't being
	    restored when a trap was set and an interrupt occured.
	p.  When exit is invoked without an argument within a trap action,
	    the exit status is the last command executed before the trap. 
	    The documentation was ambiguous, and the code was incorrect.
	q.  When xxx is not an executable, the error message produced in the
	    'e' point release by "ksh -u xxx" was misleading when.
	s.  A script that ends with an incomplete here-document caused
	    an extra new-line to be appended to the here-document text. 
	t.  When an error occurs while processing the .profile file,
	    the error message now correctly begins with .profile.
	u.  When the effective userid was 0, test -x returned true
	    for all files.  Now, at least one execute bit must be
	    on for regular files.
	v.  If the ERR trap was set inside a subshell (), it failed to
	    be executed when the last command was not a built-in and failed.
	w.  A trailing / at the end of a file pattern will match only
	    directories on all systems.  Previously, the result depended
	    on the underlying operating system.
	x.  The command cd foo/.., where foo was found in CDPATH, works
	    correctly now.
	y.  A bug which caused a core dump when the vi 'v' directive was
	    entered by a user while entering the input to a read command
	    that is contained in a script has been fixed.  The 'v' directive
	    is now an error in this case.
	z.  A bug that could cause /tmp files to remain when it terminates
	    because of an interrupt has been fixed.

8.	Bug fixes for specific non-default option combinations.
	a.  VERSIONS: MULTIBYTE no longer automatically enabled.
	b.  ACCT: The accdefs.h include removed.
	c.  BRACEPAT:  No longer references location 0 and dumps core.
	d.  EMACSPLUS: Now enables additional EMACS features.
	e.  FLOAT:  arith.c now compiles.
	f.  VI off:  e_runvi is no longer unsatisfied external.
	g.  SUID_EXEC: execute only works when file descriptor 10 is open. 
	h.  MULTIBYTE: Changing LANG and LC_TYPE now work.
	i.  FLOAT:  $((...)) now works starting with 11/16/88f.

9.	Other changes to 11/16/88[abcdef]
	a.  sh.1 corrections.
	b.  sh.memo corrections.
	c.  ksh.mk modified to build in a cross development environment.
	d.  jobs.c modified to compile on machines that define the new
	    line discipline, NTTYDISC, but not the old, OTTYDISC.
	e.  RELEASE file corrections.
	f.  Some fixes to the stand-alone edit libraries.
	g.  VERSIONS option renamed FS_3D
	h.  POSIX option added to try out some IEEE POSIX 1003.2 proposals.
	i.  VFORK bugs fixed.  I still don't recommend this option.
	j.  OLDTERMIO option added to 11/16/88c.  This option allows older
	    termio ioctls, like TCGETA to be called after newer termios
	    ioctls' fail.  Only effective for machines that have both termio.h
	    and termios.h.
	k.  universe builtin added to 11/16/88d for systems with /bin/universe.
	l.  code changes to 11/16/88e to remove sbrk() dependence and to
	    use the standard library version of malloc().
	m.  A tests directory that contains some ksh regression test has
	    been added.  See the README file for more details. 
	n.  The way builtin commands are coded has been changed to make
	    it easier to add builtins.

10.	Incompatibilities with 11/16/88 version.
	None intentional.

-- 
Larry Cipriani, att!cbvox!lvc or lvc at cbvox.att.com
"I just love the smell of gunpowder!" - Bugs Bunny