Very Computer

What makes the . command behave this way? Please share some "dot" wisdom
with a fellow shell programmer.

I am trying to do some PATH manipulation in a ksh function that gets
defined by .profile. The problem is that my function leaves running jobs
that are not really running.  I cannot exit the shell without taking
care of these things.  I have read all I can find on ksh and the .
command but I still do not understand why I get this.

Short and sweet 1 line example you can try yourself;
  (file called try.ksh)

Quote:> cat try.ksh

Quote:

> try.ksh

Quote:> jobs
>                      { no jobs running right? }
> . try.ksh

Quote:

> jobs

There it is!  Its 'Done' but it won't go away until I run jobs or some
other attempt to find out why it is still around.

I have tried sed, cut, and a few other methods to test for a duplicate
string but this seems to be the cleanest.

----- snip from actual script -------------------------
# Eliminate duplicates in PATH
# No longer want to rely on pathuniq due to it's perl dependency
#
NewPath=":"
#

do

  # Have we added this path before?
  echo $NewPath | \grep ":${PathElem}:"  > /dev/null  
  [ $? -eq 0 ] && continue
  # Append this Path element to New path
    NewPath="${NewPath}${PathElem}:"

done

NewPath="${NewPath}:"
NewPath=`echo $NewPath | sed "s?::??g"`

----------- end of snip -------------------------------

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: What makes the . command behave this way? Please share some "dot" wisdom
: with a fellow shell programmer.
: I am trying to do some PATH manipulation in a ksh function that gets
: defined by .profile. The problem is that my function leaves running jobs
: that are not really running.  I cannot exit the shell without taking
: care of these things.  I have read all I can find on ksh and the .
: command but I still do not understand why I get this.
: Short and sweet 1 line example you can try yourself;
:   (file called try.ksh)
: > cat try.ksh
: echo "start" | grep "a"
: >
: > try.ksh
: start                  { works fine }
: > jobs
: >                      { no jobs running right? }
: > . try.ksh
: start                  { again works fine }
: >
: > jobs
: [1] +  Done                    . try.ksh
: >
: There it is!  Its 'Done' but it won't go away until I run jobs or some
: other attempt to find out why it is still around.
: I have tried sed, cut, and a few other methods to test for a duplicate
: string but this seems to be the cleanest.

: ----- snip from actual script -------------------------
: # Eliminate duplicates in PATH
: # No longer want to rely on pathuniq due to it's perl dependency
: #
: NewPath=":"
: #

: do
:   # Have we added this path before?
:   echo $NewPath | \grep ":${PathElem}:"  > /dev/null  
:   [ $? -eq 0 ] && continue
:   # Append this Path element to New path
:     NewPath="${NewPath}${PathElem}:"

: NewPath="${NewPath}:"
: NewPath=`echo $NewPath | sed "s?::??g"`

: ----------- end of snip -------------------------------

The "monitor" option (whereby an the shell associates a job number with each
pipeline), automatically set by an interactive shell, will "block" until
recognized by the user via a "jobs" command. This, I feel, is a mis-feature,
one that I overcome by using the command "jobs >&-" or "set +o monitor".

-Brian

Man page lines:

     when the monitor option of the set command is turned on, an interactive
     shell associates a job with each pipeline.

     ... monitor mode is on, each background job that completes triggers
     any trap set for CHLD.

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