8.34. Bash-5.1.16

The Bash package contains the Bourne-Again SHell.

Approximate build time: 1.4 SBU
Required disk space: 50 MB

8.34.1. Installation of Bash

Prepare Bash for compilation:

./configure --prefix=/usr                      \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/bash-5.1.16 \
            --without-bash-malloc              \
            --with-installed-readline

The meaning of the new configure option:

--with-installed-readline

This option tells Bash to use the readline library that is already installed on the system rather than using its own readline version.

Compile the package:

make

Skip down to Install the package if not running the test suite.

To prepare the tests, ensure that the tester user can write to the sources tree:

chown -Rv tester .

The testsuite of the package is designed to be run as a non-root user that owns the terminal connected to standard input. To satisfy the requirement, spawn a new pseudo terminal using Expect and run the tests as the tester user:

su -s /usr/bin/expect tester << EOF
set timeout -1
spawn make tests
expect eof
lassign [wait] _ _ _ value
exit $value
EOF

Install the package:

make install

Run the newly compiled bash program (replacing the one that is currently being executed):

exec /usr/bin/bash --login

8.34.2. Contents of Bash

Installed programs: bash, bashbug, and sh (link to bash)
Installed directory: /usr/include/bash, /usr/lib/bash, and /usr/share/doc/bash-5.1.16

Short Descriptions

bash

A widely-used command interpreter; it performs many types of expansions and substitutions on a given command line before executing it, thus making this interpreter a powerful tool

bashbug

A shell script to help the user compose and mail standard formatted bug reports concerning bash

sh

A symlink to the bash program; when invoked as sh, bash tries to mimic the startup behavior of historical versions of sh as closely as possible, while conforming to the POSIX standard as well