Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!world!ksr!dgg
From: dgg@ksr.com (David Grubbs)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Bug in File test operator?
Message-ID: <DGG.90Dec5151334@kaos.ksr.com>
Date: 5 Dec 90 05:13:34 GMT
Sender: news@ksr.com
Organization: Kendall Square Research, Waltham, MA
Lines: 32

To test if a pathname is really a directory, I got used to:

	if (! -l "pathname" && -d _) { code; }

where I originally (when I first started using PERL) thought I wanted:

	if (-d "pathname") { code; }

[The file test operators use "stat()", except for '-l' which uses "lstat()".]

It no longer works as I expect.  The following short test demonstrates it.

	if (-l "." || ! -d _) {		# "." is always a real directory.
	    print "Broken.\n";
	} else {
	    print "OK.\n";
	}

Stuff the above into a file (/tmp/perl_test) and feed it to 

	perl3.patch18 < /tmp/perl_test

		Output: OK.

	perl3.patch41 < /tmp/perl_test

		Output: Broken.

Has anyone else seen this?
--
David G. Grubbs				Kendall Square Research Corp.
{harvard,uunet,world}!ksr!dgg		dgg@ksr.com


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