WG15 Defect Report Ref: 9945-2-10
Topic: mailx


This is an approved interpretation of 9945-2:1993.

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Last update: 1997-05-20


								9945-2-10
	Class: No change


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	Topic:			mailx
	Relevant Sections:	4.40.5.4


Defect Report:
-----------------------
 
          In Section 4.40.5.4 - Asynchronous Events  {of  mailx},  the 
          standard states that, except for the  SIGINT  signal,  ``the 
          mailx utility shall take the standard action for  all  other 
          signals; see 2.11.5.4'' [Draft 12 of  ISO/IEC  9945-2:1993 
          (July 1992), p. 359, line 6307] 
 
          Does the standard really mean that mailx cannot clean up  or 
          otherwise handle a SIGQUIT signal? 
 
          According to Section 1.1 - Scope: 
 
               The facilities provided are  based  on  historical 
               models of the following documents:  the  System  V 
               Interface Definition {B35}; the  BSD  User  Manual 
               {B41}; the x/OPEN  Portability  Guide  {B44};  and 
               documentation for the KornShell  {B36}.   Emphasis 
               is placed on standardizing existing  practice  for 
               existing users, with changes or additions  limited 
               to correcting deficiencies in the following areas: 
 
                    (a)  Support for international character sets 
                         and  other  localization   requirements, 
                         such   as   date   formats,    collation 
                         sequences, etc.. 
 
                    (b)  Reconciliation  of  differences  between 
                         the historical implementations. 
 
                    (c)  Elimination   of   system   or    device 
                         dependencies. 
 
                    (d)  Corrections  of  features   that   could 
                         reduce       system       or        user 
                         security/integrity. 
 
          [Ibid., p. 2, lines 35-47] 
 
          It is  our  belief  that  any  production-level  interactive 
          command should ignore a SIGQUIT signal.  Is the omission  of 
          SIGQUIT  from  the  list  in  Section  4.40.5.4  simply   an 
          oversight? 

WG15 response for 9945-2:1993 
-----------------------------------
As stated in ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 Section 2.11.5.4, option 3
permits the result of the execution of the utility to be as
if default actions had been taken.  This should not prevent
the implementation from performing cleanup operations.

Rationale for Interpretation:
-----------------------------
None.

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