Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!etnibsd!vsh
From: vsh@etnibsd.UUCP (Steve Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: is ( -e _ ) always true??
Message-ID: <1171@etnibsd.UUCP>
Date: 17 Oct 90 17:19:45 GMT
Organization: Eaton Corp, Semiconductor Equipment Div., Beverly, MA
Lines: 31

The subject line says it all.  I'm running:

$Header: perly.c,v 3.0.1.5 90/03/27 16:20:57 lwall Locked $
Patch level: 18

Consider the following script, and output:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- script =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

# the file "." should always exist
$f = ".";
print "-e $f returns ", -e $f ? "true" : "false", "\n";
print "-e _ returns ", -e _ ? "true" : "false", "\n";

# the file "...." probably doesn't exist
$f = "....";
print "-e $f returns ", -e $f ? "true" : "false", "\n";
print "-e _ returns ", -e _ ? "true" : "false", "\n";

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- output =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

-e . returns true
-e _ returns true
-e .... returns false
-e _ returns true

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Has anybody noticed this before?  Is it the correct behavior?
-- 
Steve Harris - Eaton Corp. - Beverly, MA - uunet!etnibsd!vsh