Set bash's shell option nullglob by default?

[Bryn M. Reeves]

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On 07/13/2012 01:06 PM, Scott Schmit wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 01:56:29PM +0200, Roman Rakus wrote:
>> Hi, I have a question about nullglob bash's shell option. I want
>> to hear opinions. The behavior is nicely described in bash
>> reference manual [1] By default, the nullglob is turned off. And
>> it tends people to use bad habits in shell scripting. In my POV
>> the nullglob could be turned on by default. However, i would like
>> to hear opinions from others.
>> 
>> It is possible it can break many scripts even in rpm's
>> scriptlets, but as I already said, it's because bad habits. So
>> the main gain will be the people will learn how is the globbing
>> in bash and in the whole environment working.
> 
> So ls *.foo should list the entire directory if no files match
> *.foo? It's a bad habit for me to expect ls *.foo to return nothing
> in this case? You're going to need to convince me.

I wouldn't back this change either but that's not the behaviour of
nullglob. If nothing matches the glob the word remains unchanged (i.e.
*.foo -> *.foo):

$ ls *.foo
ls: cannot access *.foo: No such file or directory

$ echo *.foo
*.foo

Regards,
Bryn.
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