mizch (guest) 09 Jun 2013 18:36
At the top of each console the leadin reads "…; exec /system/bin/sh". Fortunately, this is not what really happens to exec the console's shell, since this would mean that Android's sh were started which is very limited. The first sh binary along $PATH is used instead which happens to be in my case the busybox sh symlink, residing in /sbin.
This may seem a minor issue. But some busyboxes put their links into /system/xbin, which comes *after* /system/bin in $PATH. Can /system/bin be moved to be the very last element in $PATH? If you're doing Bourne shell programming, using /system/bin utilities often serverly interferes with what you'd normally expect from the shell language. One especially bad example is /system/bin/mount.
I would even propose a more general solution: Let the user decide which shell to run in which environment. $PATH can be modified, but there's more to it: I have bash and most GNU Utilities on my phone. They come with BTEP (Better Terminal Emulator Pro). Adding their Path into the front of SM's $PATH worked and I had bash with GNU Utilities, giving me a full-fledged programming environment without compromises. There's only a small drawback: $PS1 calls $(precmd) which is now unknown, leading to an "unknown" message before every prompt. But this could be worked around in bash's init script or by simply defining "precmd" to be an empty file with exec permission along $PATH.
BTEP allows to run different shells in their individual environment, albeit not perfect. This enables me to switch from bash to the busybox environment which is very important when writing scripts for other people, not for myself only.
A final word: Whow! This is what I thougt when I saw script manager again after nearly 2 years of abstinence, where I mainly used BTEP. It has improved a lot. So I bought the full version. Thanks!
mizch (guest), 09 Jun 2013 18:36