[gnarula]

From POSIX [1][2]:

> If the execl() function fails due to an error equivalent to the [ENOEXEC] error defined in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1-2017, the shell shall execute a command equivalent to having a shell invoked with the pathname resulting from the search as its first operand, with any remaining arguments passed to the new shell, except that the value of "$0" in the new shell may be set to the command name. If the executable file is not a text file, the shell may bypass this command execution. In this case, it shall write an error message, and shall return an exit status of 126.

[1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/V... [2] https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/373229

[nerdponx]

Thanks!

Does POSIX define what a "text file" is?

[michaelhoffman]

> A file that contains characters organized into zero or more lines. The lines do not contain NUL characters and none can exceed {LINE_MAX} bytes in length, including the <newline> character. Although POSIX.1-2017 does not distinguish between text files and binary files (see the ISO C standard), many utilities only produce predictable or meaningful output when operating on text files. The standard utilities that have such restrictions always specify "text files" in their STDIN or INPUT FILES sections.

https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1...

[macintux]

Does an empty file contain characters? That first sentence seems like it contradicts itself.

[brianpan]

Yes. It contains zero characters.

An empty file actually contains zero of everything in the universe.

[dfox]

The idea behind the definition is that it defines set of files that will not trigger various bugs in traditional unix text tools implementations (ie. various variants of not checking the fgets() return value).

[nerdponx]

I think the implication is that empty files are considered text files.

[aidenn0]

If it does, I never found it.