Re: manual: clarify -n (noexec) vs interactive shells

On 8/19/26 10:42 AM, Tom Hale wrote:

> Bash Version: 5.3
> Patch Level: 15
> Release Status: release
> 
> Documentation inaccuracy in the manual's description of the `-n`
> (noexec) option as it applies to interactive shells.
> 
> The bash manual, section 4.3.1 `The Set Builtin`, says:
> 
>      -n
>          Read commands but do not execute them. This may be used to
>          check a script for syntax errors. This option is ignored by
>          interactive shells.
> 
> This wording is misleading. In practice:
> 
> * `set -n` at runtime in an interactive shell is ignored, matching
>    the manual.
> * `bash -n` on the command line is honored even when the shell is
>    interactive: on a tty it prints the interactive prompt but does
>    not execute any commands.

Thanks for the report. Per the August 2024 discussion you reference below,
the right thing is to ignore -n when supplied at invocation unless the -i
option is also supplied to force an otherwise-non-interactive shell to be
interactive.

I made that change in 2024, but the code was in the wrong place. I'll fix it.

Chet

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
		 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    [email protected]    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/

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