Subject: bug#19731: 24.4; /dev/null is deleted by tramp-sh.el

From: crocket <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 23:18:55 +0900

Bash guys hate to see HISTFILE set to /dev/null, and they say it is
stupid to do so.
In their mind, setting HISTFILE to /dev/null or any other character
device leads to vulnerabilities for now.
However, they are willing to deal with the HISTFILE issue because bash
shouldn't delete /dev/null in any case.

If bash guys consider it as a vulnerability, I think it is wise for
emacs guys to avoid it on their side.

On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 10:04 PM, Michael Albinus <[email-masked]> wrote:
> crocket <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>> You shouldn't set HISTFILE to /dev/null in the first place.
>
> Well, I'm kind of conservative. Setting HISTFILE to /dev/null is the
> default for years, and your report is the first one about this problem.
>
> I wouldn't say that we shouldn't change it, but it needs more
> compatibility tests for supported shells. This could be any bournish
> shell, even very old ones. Also all flavors of busybox, etc pp.
>
> Best regards, Michael.