>> Since AS_BASENAME is undocumented, and since it is most useful in variable
>> assignments, perhaps it is time to redefine it as follows (untested)
>>
>> # AS_BASENAME(var, name, [ext])
>> # -----------------------------
>> # Compute the basename of NAME, with trailing EXT removed, and assign
>> # the result to the shell variable VAR.
>
> I like this idea. It's been on my mental to-do list for quite some
> time, and it's an obvious improvement. We can't simply use "${1##*/}",
> though, as that mishandles the basenames of strings like "a/b/" and "///".
So that would rule out no-fork AS_BASENAME, unless we can rely also on
extglob and ${1%%*(/)}. Or unless a case statement and a rarely
executed while loop would be faster than a fork:
case $x in
*/) while :; do
x=${x%/}
case $x in */) ;; *) break ;;
esac; done
esac
I honestly have no idea if this is the case.
Paolo
