Package: bash
Version: 4.2-2
Severity: normal

The man page description of ${parameter:-word},
${parameter:=word},i and ${parameter:?word}, etc
does not mention that ":" is optional (at least in scripts).

: does not seem to be optional at a bash prompt, so I am uncertain
about the intended behaviour. But many sh scripts use the form
with the omitted ":". Some oldish documentation says that the
parameter is only tested for existence when ":" is omitted.

It does seem to be optional with scripts starting with
#!/bin/sh and #!/bin/bash.

--------------------------------------------------------

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.4.0_c2+
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages bash depends on:
ii  base-files   6.9
ii  dash         0.5.7-3
ii  debianutils  4.3.1
ii  libc6        2.13-33
ii  libtinfo5    5.9-9

Versions of packages bash recommends:
ii  bash-completion  1:2.0-1

Versions of packages bash suggests:
ii  bash-doc  4.2-2

-- no debconf information



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