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From: cudcv@warwick.ac.uk (Rob McMahon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell
Subject: Re: ksh: Checking for file existence
Message-ID: <2HX{2#_@warwick.ac.uk>
Date: 19 Jun 91 09:12:25 GMT
References: <91165.101842RS0VRD@ROHVM1.BITNET> <1991Jun15.031252.6351@chinet.chi.il.us>
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Organization: Computing Services, Warwick University, UK
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In article <1991Jun15.031252.6351@chinet.chi.il.us> les@chinet.chi.il.us
(Leslie Mikesell) writes: 
>This should work with sh or ksh:
>FILES=`echo *.data`
>if [ "*.data" = "$FILES" ]
>  then :  # no match
>else
>  for i in $FILES
>   do
>  ... process them...
>   done
>fi

... unless you've got a file called `*.data', or a file with a space in the
name ... how about 

set - *.data
if [ "$*" = "*.data" -a ! -f "*.data" ]
then
  : no files
else
  for i
  do
    ... process them ...
  done
fi

Yuck,

Rob
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Rob McMahon, Computing Services, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, England