Re: [Nmh-workers] whatnow(1)'s cd Doesn't Affect it's mime.

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Jon,

> David wrote:
> > > It's very unintuitive, well, wrong, that a `cd' command at a
> > > command's prompt doesn't change the current working directory as
> > > far as all other commands are concerned.  That's not how other
> > > Unix commands that provide cd work.  If it can't be fixed then
> > > whatnow(1) could do with pointing it out.
> >
> > Well, yeah.
>
> Well, since I'm responsible for this, I don't agree with you.  Yes, it
> might be unintuitive if you're not familiar with UNIX, but it is how
> it works.  If you type
> 
>       sh
>       cd foo
>       exit
> 
> you will not be in foo.  Whatnow is a subshell.

I have some familiarity with Unix.  ;-)

My complaint, and whatnow(1)'s behaviour, is, in normal sh terms, more
akin to

     1  $ pwd
     2  /
     3  $ mkdir foo
     4  $ date >foo/bar
     5  $ cd foo
     6  $ pwd
     7  /foo
     8  $ ls
     9  bar
    10  $ cat bar
    11  cat: bar: No such file or directory
    12  $ cat foo/bar
    13  2017-01-18 12:51:06 +0000 Wed

It's like a sh(1) that implements its built-in `cd' without calling
chdir(2), instead tracking cwd as a string to supplement other commands,
but only some of them.  Thus, 6 and 8 "lie" that we've chdir'd, yet 10's
cat, not one of the annointed commands, can't find bar and must instead
must give a path as if the cd didn't happen.  cat here is `mime' at the
whatnow prompt.

When implementing this, was there a reason whatnow doesn't implement
`cd' with chdir, as normal Unix commands that offer cd do, and instead
"fake" it for `pwd', `ls', and `attach', but not `mime', etc?

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy