[agwa]

> Its advisable to rename bash, and replace it with a symlink to dash; it shouldn't break any scripts

It most certainly will. dash provides a tiny subset of bash's functionality. Even scripts using #!/bin/sh often contain bashisms; a script using #!/bin/bash is certain to contain bashisms.

If you really want to swap out bash, swapping it out with ksh is likely to break fewer scripts (though it could still break scripts - ksh and bash are similar but not the same - so I don't recommend you do this).

And neither dash nor ksh have this "feature" of exporting functions through environment variables.

[fabulist]

You're right, and I didn't find this out until after I couldn't edit my post. My mistake.

I still contend that its a good idea. Most shell scripts used by the OS are written to dash in my experience; if you break ones you've added yourself, this is perhaps a good opportunity to review their security.