Re: Behavior of "enable foo" doesn't seem to match bash(1) page.

[Greg Wooledge]

On Fri, Aug 16, 2024 at 15:25:57 -0400, Chet Ramey wrote:
> This is on ubuntu 24 on an AWS VM.

> so it appears that none of the directories in the default Ubuntu value of
> BASH_LOADABLES_PATH actually exist. I don't know where they're installed,
> if anywhere, and I didn't bother to search beyond these.

It looks like Ubuntu provides the builtins in a separate package,
bash-builtins.  <https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/bash-builtins>

It also looks like their bash package does not have *any* kind of
dependency relationship with bash-builtins.
<https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/bash> shows no sign of it, neither
a hard dependency, nor a recommedation, nor even a suggestion.

To be fair, Debian is exactly the same way.

It ends up being a catch-22.  The bash-builtins package isn't part of a
standard installation because almost no scripts use them, and scripts
don't use them because they're not likely to be present.

A sensible thing might be for someone to file a wishlist bug, asking
for the bash package to add a "Suggests: bash-builtins".  I doubt a
request for a Recommends: would be fulfilled, but a Suggests: just
might fly.