Scripts starting with colon

Thu Sep 16 03:52:00 GMT 1999

Why do scripts have to start with #! to be recognised as executable?
Scripts can start with just : to mean that it's either a bourne shell
script or a bash script depending on what shell you execute the script
from.
Was this an intentional ommission?
There are scripts in the cygwin installation that start with a colon,
for example gzexe, but the next line is #!/bin/sh and these files are
recognised as being executable.
It seems to be the case with cygwin that a file (with UNIX style end of
line characters) that starts with
:#!
is the equivalent of a file that starts
#!/bin/sh
how confusing.
Could this matter be fixed (or added to a list of bugs - possibly
mentioned in the FAQ), or is it not considered a bug?
Keith
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