Hi,

new Alpine user here.

I have a script that I have used elsewhere in many places that I have problems
running on Alpine. It is written to use ksh (Korn Shell). I installed mksh and
aliased it to ksh (with a symlink); I get the error below. I then tried oksh
with the same result.

I have been using ksh93 on Debian, RedHat, BSD, ... without issues.

The line that is causing problem is below - this sets up an array. mksh & oksh
do not support this:

	typeset -A LongOpts=([help]=0 [me]=1)

Is there any reason why ksh93 not be ported to Alpine ?

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  https://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers. Registration Information: https://www.phcomp.co.uk/Contact.html
#include <std_disclaimer.h>

On 15 July 2026 13:00:53 BST, alain williams <addw@phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
>I have been using ksh93 on Debian, RedHat, BSD, ... without issues.
>
>The line that is causing problem is below - this sets up an array. mksh & oksh
>do not support this:
>
>	typeset -A LongOpts=([help]=0 [me]=1)
>
>Is there any reason why ksh93 not be ported to Alpine ?

As far as I can tell, the only reason is lack of interest. There's only been a handful of users interested in it: https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/work_items/7801

Does a docker image exist?

+1 for podman in this case..


On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 8:43 AM Naomi Rennie-Waldock <
naomi.renniewaldock@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 15 July 2026 13:00:53 BST, alain williams <addw@phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> >I have been using ksh93 on Debian, RedHat, BSD, ... without issues.
> >
> >The line that is causing problem is below - this sets up an array. mksh &
> oksh
> >do not support this:
> >
> >       typeset -A LongOpts=([help]=0 [me]=1)
> >
> >Is there any reason why ksh93 not be ported to Alpine ?
>
> As far as I can tell, the only reason is lack of interest. There's only
> been a handful of users interested in it:
> https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/work_items/7801
>

On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 10:58:08AM -0400, B. Cook wrote:
> Does a docker image exist?
> 
> +1 for podman in this case..

I don't know podman.

A trivial Dockerfile that gets you the ksh93 shell as packaged for
Debian:

	FROM debian:latest

	RUN apt-get update && apt-get install --yes ksh
	RUN useradd -m ksh-user

	USER ksh-user
	WORKDIR /home/ksh-user

	ENTRYPOINT ["ksh"]

Building and running it:

	$ docker build -t ksh93 .
	$ docker run --rm -it ksh93
	~ [1]$ echo $KSH_VERSION
	Version AJM 93u+m/1.0.10 2024-08-01
	~ [2]$ exit


> 
> 
> On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 8:43 AM Naomi Rennie-Waldock <
> naomi.renniewaldock@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On 15 July 2026 13:00:53 BST, alain williams <addw@phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> > >I have been using ksh93 on Debian, RedHat, BSD, ... without issues.
> > >
> > >The line that is causing problem is below - this sets up an array. mksh &
> > oksh
> > >do not support this:
> > >
> > >       typeset -A LongOpts=([help]=0 [me]=1)
> > >
> > >Is there any reason why ksh93 not be ported to Alpine ?
> >
> > As far as I can tell, the only reason is lack of interest. There's only
> > been a handful of users interested in it:
> > https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/work_items/7801
> >

-- 
Matti Andreas Kähäri
Uppsala, Sweden

///