> What does it mean for the /bin/sh problem? Maybe you or Ian should
> make an executive decision: Pick a shell (ksh93 or bash) and get it
> integrated as /bin/sh.

That's not how it works with OpenSolaris.

Instead, someone in the community needs to make a proposal to change
/bin/sh to something different.  The process in complete detail is
listed here

http://opensolaris.org/os/community/on/os_dev_process/#development-process

but the general idea would be to

        1) Propose something on the appropriate OpenSolaris mailing
        lists.  For something like changing /bin/sh which has many
        consumers, you'll need to get a fairly wide representation.
        Some of the issues that need to be explored are

                Which shell should be the replacement?

                What are the system dependencies on the old /bin/sh?

                Are there any upgrade issues for existing users
                (per-user dot-files, personal shell scripts?)  Is there
                an upgrade strategy that makes sense?

                How will this change be communicated to the community,
                ISVs and existing users.

        2) Once a consensus has been reached about the particulars,
        then some sort of design should be articulated.  In this
        particular case, it might be a refinement to the original
        proposal to document what's being delivered, the impact of such
        a change on the system and what, if any, upgrade procedures
        need to take place for existing system.  This along with a list
        of the "interfaces" that the new proposed /bin/sh "imports" (or
        consumes) and "exports" (or provides to other consumers) could
        form the basis for an ARC review.

        3) In parallel with this design/architectural statement, a test
        plan needs to be drafted and reviewed which when executed tells
        the implementor and eventually a review team (called the
        C-team) that the replacement works correctly (by any number of
        notions be it test suites, standards conformance tests, etc).
        The test plan also would cover regression testing of other
        components which use /bin/sh to verify that they're unaffected
        by the proposed change.  If those components are affected, then
        part of the project would be to fix them to work with the new
        shell.

        4) Once the revised proposal has been approved by the ARC (in
        this case, PSARC), and the test plan has been executed
        successfully, there would need to be some sort of code review
        for all proposed changes (even if they're just packaging
        changes).  With a change of something as fundamental as
        /bin/sh, there would undoubtedly also be documentation changes
        to the OpenSolaris books, the appropriate manual pages and
        other documentation source which "announce" changes in
        OpenSolaris.

        5) Current test suites for OpenSolaris would need to be updated
        to accommodate the revised /bin/sh and in addition, new test
        suites should be introduced to make sure that future putbacks
        don't break the newly revised /bin/sh.

        6) The last step is typically C-team review which verifies that
        the implementor has done everything they were supposed to.

dsc
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