Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Case statements in Bourne shell
Message-ID: <1989Jun24.204627.24638@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989Jun21.180116.18294@insyte>
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 89 20:46:27 GMT

In article <1989Jun21.180116.18294@insyte> m2@insyte (Mike Arena) writes:
>    The problem is with case statements of the form:
>    	case "$foo" in
>    	"")	...
>    	*)	...
>    	esac
>If the variable foo is not set or is null then the first choice ("") should
>fire but it doesn't....
>... I would like to know if our Bourne shell is broken or if the scripts
>are written incorrectly...

The former, I think.  My recollection is that we've seen obscure shell
problems before on HP boxes -- HP seems to have Done Something to the shell,
perhaps as part of an incautious attempt to make it 8-bit-clean.
-- 
NASA is to spaceflight as the  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
US government is to freedom.   | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu