Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!franco@MIKEY.BBN.COM From: franco@MIKEY.BBN.COM (Frank A. Lonigro) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: /bin/test and stat(2) Message-ID: <9986@brl-adm.ARPA> Date: Tue, 27-Oct-87 09:58:12 EST Article-I.D.: brl-adm.9986 Posted: Tue Oct 27 09:58:12 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 29-Oct-87 21:45:01 EST Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA Lines: 31 G B Reilly responded to my most resent posting in which I described a script that would destroy a system. > > C'mon - average user creating a root script! > > Next you'll believe DEC and IBM when they tell us that systems > programmers aren't needed to run machines. You know! It's responses like this that make me think twice about whether or not the subscribers to this list are really UNIX WIZARDS (what ever that is!) or just HACKERS who think they know what they're talking about. I didn't mean average programmer in the sense of a college student (which I believe reilly is), I really meant average systems programmer (someone who graduated college and has a real job) who didn't know that /bin/test -d "" would return TRUE. Out in the real working world, just about anything can happen, especially if you have over 100 computers (not including PC's or workstations) to manage like I do. And on all these computers, you have programmers (some have root privileges) developing software. It may be true that "" is a directory, but I still haven't heard a good excuse for needing it. Frank A. Lonigro Systems Software Engineer (UNIX) Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN) Cambridge, MA BBN - A leader in Networking and Communications.