The printf builtin "%(fmt)T" specifier (which allows time values to use strftime-like formatting) is introduced in bash 4.2. Trying to execute this in pre-4.2 bash will fail -- and if this happens execute the fallback piece of perl code to do the same thing. --- test/test-lib.sh | 8 ++++++-- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/test/test-lib.sh b/test/test-lib.sh index 78af170..a1c0f27 100644 --- a/test/test-lib.sh +++ b/test/test-lib.sh @@ -374,8 +374,12 @@ generate_message () # we use decreasing timestamps here for historical reasons; # the existing test suite when we converted to unique timestamps just # happened to have signicantly fewer failures with that choice. - template[date]=$(TZ=UTC printf "%(%a, %d %b %Y %T %z)T\n" \ - $((978709437 - gen_msg_cnt))) + local date_secs=$((978709437 - gen_msg_cnt)) + # printf %(..)T is bash 4.2+ feature. use perl fallback if needed... + TZ=UTC printf -v template[date] "%(%a, %d %b %Y %T %z)T" $date_secs 2>/dev/null || + template[date]=`perl -le 'use POSIX "strftime"; + @time = gmtime '"$date_secs"'; + print strftime "%a, %d %b %Y %T +0000", @time'` fi additional_headers="" -- 1.8.0