Re: sharutils-4.15.2

On 7/25/25 12:03 PM, "Zeckma" ([email protected] via blfs-dev 
Mailing List) wrote:
> On 7/25/25 10:33, Bruce Dubbs ([email protected] via blfs-dev
> Mailing List) wrote:
>> On 7/25/25 11:23 AM, "Douglas R. Reno" ([email protected]
>> via blfs-dev Mailing List) wrote:
>>> It might be worth considering archiving it after 12.4 is out, and
>>> including a note in the release announcement asking users to contact
>>> us if they still use it. If we do remove it though we will also need
>>> to remove our notes about being POSIX compliant. On that note, we
>>> should also update our POSIX information in the LFS books to mention
>>> POSIX.1-2024, and probably check in that to see if sharutils is
>>> still mentioned and if there's any other changes we might need to
>>> make.
>> I asked google and got:
>>
>> "According to the available information, the
>> sharutils suite, which includes shar, unshar, uuencode, and uudecode,
>> is not listed as a mandatory or optional utility within the
>> POSIX.1-2024 (Issue 8) standard. The Open Group Base Specifications,
>> Issue 8, which is the current iteration of the POSIX standard,
>> defines a set of standard utilities that promote application
>> portability across UNIX system environments. A thorough review of the
>> listed mandatory and optional utilities in the standard does not
>> include sharutils."
>>
>> I am in favor of archiving it now.
> I always take AI generated output with a grain of salt. Did some
> research and looked at the specification it listed and found it was
> sort of right but mostly wrong. The standard doesn't list Sharutils
> directly. Instead, it lists uudecode and uuencode which are part of the
> Sharutils package. See [1] and [2]. shar and unshar are not listed. If
> we want to be compliant, we need to still provide a package that
> provides those utilities, which Sharutils does. A top down view of the
> required utilities is at [3] for further reading.
>
> [1]:
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799.2024edition/utilities/uudecode.html#tag_20_141
> [2]:
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799.2024edition/utilities/uuencode.html#tag_20_142
> [3]:
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799.2024edition/utilities/toc.html

 From what I can tell, the uudecode and uuencode applications are only 
provided by sharutils, and all other distros are still carrying it. 
Probably best to keep it if we want to be POSIX compliant... At the same 
time AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, and the BSDs still carry it as well.

- Doug

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