[Bug 1366451] Re: "mksh -v" should display mksh's version number, plus the attached chunk of text, onscreen

[Thorsten Glaser]

Jason Spiro dixit:

>mksh takes up more than 100 KB, and typical new Android phones seem to
>include gigabytes of flash memory.  I still believe Android could afford
>the bytes it would cost to include a "help" function in
>/system/bin/mkshrc which would display something like the following.

This is actually a good idea. Please submit this directly to AOSP
through their Gerrit system.

>If you have a question, comment, bug report, or suggestion:
>    Please visit <http://android.stackexchange.com/>.

Not bad, but maybe they should tag those questions [mksh] on SE
and I should subscribe that tag there. Also, a link to the mksh
docs may be appropriate.

>This would help new mksh users realize how many things they truly can do
>in an Android shell.  For example, they might have had no idea that they
>could capture screenshots and screencasts using the command line; but a
>help message can inform them.

Agreed.

While I “maintain” mksh in AOSP too (every once in a while, when
I can build it), I’m also just submitting things there, so please
submit yours, add enh and me as reviewers, and I can +1 it.

bye,
//mirabilos

PS: Thanks for the effort!
-- 
Yay for having to rewrite other people's Bash scripts because bash
suddenly stopped supporting the bash extensions they make use of
	-- Tonnerre Lombard in #nosec

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1366451

Title:
  "mksh -v" should display mksh's version number, plus the attached
  chunk of text, onscreen

Status in The MirBSD Korn Shell:
  Opinion
Status in “mksh” package in Ubuntu:
  Opinion
Status in “mksh” package in Debian:
  Opinion

Bug description:
  It's customary in the Unix world that "-v" or "--version" displays a
  program's version. If someone is logged into an Android device, you
  want to make it easy for them to find out which shell is installed.
  How can you do this? One way is to offer a "-v" option which will tell
  them the answer (and will also tell them mksh's version number).

  May I suggest that, if the user runs "mksh -v", then mksh should echo
  the following to stdout, after which it should immediately exit.

  --- cut here ---
  mksh R50b+cvs
  This is mksh, the MirBSD Korn Shell.

  Homepage:  <http://mirbsd.de/mksh>.

  Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Thorsten Glaser.
  This is open-source software; see <https://www.mirbsd.org/TaC-mksh.txt> for copying conditions.

  This work is provided "AS IS" and WITHOUT WARRANTY of any kind, to
  the utmost extent permitted by applicable law, neither express nor
  implied; without malicious intent or gross negligence.

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