Linux From Scratch - Version r12.2-19

Chapter 8. Installing Basic System Software

8.36. Bash-5.2.37

The Bash package contains the Bourne-Again Shell.

Approximate build time: 1.4 SBU
Required disk space: 52 MB

8.36.1. Installation of Bash

Prepare Bash for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr             \
            --without-bash-malloc     \
            --with-installed-readline \
            bash_cv_strtold_broken=no \
            --docdir=/usr/share/doc/bash-5.2.37

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 -R tester .

The test suite of this package is designed to be run as a non-root user who 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

The test suite uses diff to detect the difference between test script output and the expected output. Any output from diff (prefixed with < and >) indicates a test failure, unless there is a message saying the difference can be ignored. One test named run-builtins is known to fail on some host distros with a difference on the first line of the output.

Install the package: 

make install

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

exec /usr/bin/bash --login

8.36.2. 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-5.2.37

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