[Bug 589496] Re: bash --rcfile does not behave as documented

[mpb]

[TL;DR:  Bash developer Chet Ramey claimed in 2015 that this is a
documentation bug.  Then, in 2016, a documentation patch has been
proposed to (and possibly accepted by?) Debian.]

On 16 Sep 2016, Chet Ramey released version 4.4 of bash.  This inspired
me to check and see if this long standing issue has been fixed.  Here is
what I learned.

Debian bug # 343673 from 2005.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=343673

Debian bug # 516152 from 2009.
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=516152

GNU Savannah bug #107950 from 2012.
https://savannah.gnu.org/support/index.php?107950

In 2015, Chet Ramey commented on the above Savannah bug report:

"Debian made that documentation error. If you compile with -DSYS_BASHRC,
it's always executed, as is ~/.bashrc (or the file specified with
--rcfile)"

In other words, Ramey claims this is a documentation bug.  I do not know
if -DSYS_BASHRC has only the one above effect, or if it also has other
effects as well.

In 2016, Tom Levy posted the following comment on Debian bug #516152
(see above link).

"Convincing Chet that the behaviour in Debian's documentation is preferable
to the current behaviour seems hard considering his 3-year response time.  I propose changing the documentation."

Levy also included a patch to Debian's bash man page.  The patch is
here:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?att=3;bug=516152;filename
=man-bashrc.diff.patch;msg=27

I am not an expert on the Debian development process, so I am unable to
determine if the patch has been accepted by Debian.

The patch does not appear to have been applied to the following file,
but this might not be the correct place to look for the patch.  (Again,
I am not a Debian expert.)

http://sources.debian.net/src/bash/4.4-1/doc/bash.1/

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/589496

Title:
  bash --rcfile does not behave as documented

Status in bash package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in bash package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: bash

  the bash manpage says this about --rcfile

  --rcfile file
  Execute commands from file instead of the system  wide  initial‐
  ization file /etc/bash.bashrc and the standard personal initial‐
  ization file ~/.bashrc if the shell is interactive (see  INVOCA‐
  TION below).

  under INVOCATION it says

  When  an  interactive  shell that is not a login shell is started, bash
  reads and executes commands from  /etc/bash.bashrc  and  ~/.bashrc,  if
  these  files  exist.  This may be inhibited by using the --norc option.
  The --rcfile file option will force bash to read and  execute  commands
  from file instead of /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc.

  but when i execute
  $ bash --rcfile somercfilewhichreallydoesexistandisreadableandall
  it will still read /etc/bash/bashrc (can be verified by adding --verbose)

  using lucid with bash 4.1-2ubuntu3

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