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From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.sys5
Subject: Re: sh bug
Message-ID: <5693@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Nov-87 22:20:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ncoast.5693
Posted: Mon Nov 16 22:20:37 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Nov-87 22:00:57 EST
References: <467@virginia.acc.virginia.edu> <706@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <318@igloo.UUCP>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Followup-To: comp.bugs.sys5
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 27

As quoted from <318@igloo.UUCP> by billw@igloo.UUCP (Bill Wisner):
+---------------
| In article <706@its63b.ed.ac.uk> simon@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Simon Brown) writes:
| >Dat's 'cos the first cd fails, so the shell interrupts itself (well, sort of),
| >and jumps straight back to command level - without executing the second part of
| >the "||". What you'll have to do is force the first component to be executed
| >in a subshell so it can't effect the second - like
| [example using (cd nowhere) deleted]
| 
| Sorry, I'm afraid not. Doing a cd in a subshell will do absolutely no good.
| The subshell will change directories, but immediately afterwards it will exit,
| leaving the original shell back where it started.
+---------------

Did you *really* look at the example?  It cd's twice.

(cd nowhere) 2> /dev/null && cd nowhere

The first one has no effect -- except that we get an exit status nonzero if
the directory doesn't exist.  This allows (in a klugey way) testing the
exit status of a cd.

Me?  I use ksh.
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery		      necntc!ncoast!allbery@harvard.harvard.edu
{hoptoad,harvard!necntc,{sun,cbosgd}!mandrill!hal,uunet!hnsurg3}!ncoast!allbery
			Moderator of comp.sources.misc