Bash-4.4 distribution sources and documentation

Author: Chet Ramey

CHANGES

@@ -2,9 +2,9 @@ Compatibility with previous versions
 ====================================
 
 This document details the incompatibilities between this version of bash,
-bash-4.3, and the previous widely-available versions, bash-3.x (which is
-still the `standard' version for Mac OS X), 4.0/4.1 (which are still
-standard on a few Linux distributions), and bash-4.2, the current
+bash-4.4, and the previous widely-available versions, bash-3.x (which is
+still the `standard' version for Mac OS X), 4.1/4.2 (which are still
+standard on a few Linux distributions), and bash-4.3, the current
 widely-available version.  These were discovered by users of bash-2.x
 through 4.x, so this list is not comprehensive.  Some of these
 incompatibilities occur between the current version and versions 2.0 and
@@ -372,6 +372,25 @@ above.
     characters in the replacement string as special; if it treats them as
     special, then quote removal should remove them.
 
+54. Bash-4.4 no longer considers a reference to ${a[@]} or ${a[*]}, where `a'
+    is an array without any elements set, to be a reference to an unset
+    variable.  This means that such a reference will not cause the shell to
+    exit when the `-u' option is enabled.
+
+55. Bash-4.4 allows double quotes to quote the history expansion character (!)
+    when in Posix mode, since Posix specifies the effects of double quotes.
+
+56. Bash-4.4 does not inherit $PS4 from the environment if running as root.
+
+57. Bash-4.4 doesn't allow a `break' or `continue' in a function to affect
+    loop execution in the calling context.
+
+58. Bash-4.4 no longer expands tildes in $PATH elements when in Posix mode.
+
+59. Bash-4.4 does not attempt to perform a compound array assignment if an
+    argument to `declare' or a similar builtin expands to a word that looks
+    like a compound array assignment (e.g. declare w=$x where x='(foo)').
+
 Shell Compatibility Level
 =========================
 
@@ -389,6 +408,9 @@ to this variable (a decimal version number like 4.2, or an integer
 corresponding to the compatNN option, like 42) determines the compatibility
 level.
 
+Bash-4.4 has begun deprecating older compatibility levels.  Eventually, the
+options will be removed in favor of the BASH_COMPAT variable.
+
 compat31 set
 	- the < and > operators to the [[ command do not consider the current
 	  locale when comparing strings; they use ASCII ordering
@@ -408,7 +430,7 @@ compat40 set
 
 compat41 set
 	- interrupting a command list such as "a ; b ; c" causes the execution
-	  of the entire list to be aborted (in versions before bash-4.1,
+	  of the entire list to be aborted (in versions before bash-4.0,
 	  interrupting one command in a list caused the next to be executed)
 	- when in posix mode, single quotes in the `word' portion of a
 	  double-quoted parameter expansion define a new quoting context and
@@ -417,6 +439,18 @@ compat41 set
 compat42 set
 	- the replacement string in double-quoted pattern substitution is not
 	  run through quote removal, as in previous versions
+
+compat43 set
+	- the shell does not print a warning message if an attempt is made to
+	  use a quoted compound assignment as an argument to declare
+	  (declare -a foo='(1 2)')
+	- word expansion errors are considered non-fatal errors that cause the
+	  current command to fail, even in Posix mode
+	- when executing a shell function, the loop state (while/until/etc.) is
+	  not reset, so `break' or `continue' in a shell function will break or
+	  continue loops in the calling context.  Bash-4.4 and later reset the
+	  loop state to prevent this.
+
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