Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut!lvc
From: lvc@tut.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: To . or not to .
Message-ID: <648@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Wed, 21-Oct-87 18:41:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: tut.648
Posted: Wed Oct 21 18:41:07 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Oct-87 11:08:07 EDT
Organization: Ohio State Computer & Info Science
Lines: 17
Keywords: UNIX, file system

All this discussion of getting rid of . and .. is pretty
amusing.  Just in case some of you are serious, here is a
good example of another use of it.

    for p in $x/*/.
    do
	stuff
    done

p will only take on values of executable directories (with /.
appended).  This is easier than the alternative of letting p
range over all of $x/* and then testing if it is the name of
an executable directory.  Also, sometimes $x/* will expand
to too many characters and the script could fail.  There are
other uses of . than meaning the current directory.

	Larry Cipriani tut!lvc