Default shell in Debian 6 of R is SH instead of BASH

What shell to use _locally_ is a local policy decision and can be
overridden.  If your scripts need bash, you can could
 - either rewrite them to only sh constructs (a pain)
 - override the Debian default and make bash the default

Just for the record, if you scripts need to use bash, they should have
#!/bin/bash in the shebang line. If your scripts can use any POSIX
shell, then they should have #!/bin/sh in the shebang line. This should
resolve any of the problems you are having regardless of which shell
happens to be /bin/sh.

Don Armstrong                      http://www.donarmstrong.com

I finally developed
a computer with feelings.
It just doesn't have
feelings for me.
 -- a softer world #633
    http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=633