Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!lll-tis!ptsfa!pacbell!pb2esac!pttesac!vanam
From: vanam@pttesac.UUCP (Marnix van Ammers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: bourne and korn shell incompatibilities
Message-ID: <674@pttesac.UUCP>
Date: 31 Jan 88 05:01:29 GMT
Organization: Pacific*Bell ESAC, San Francisco, Ca.
Lines: 33
Keywords: sh ksh


Here's an incompatibility between ksh and sh.  With ksh, this fails
on both the UNIX-PC and the 3B20 if there's more than one *.c file.
Works OK with the bourne shell.

    if [ -f *.c ];then
      echo "There's a C file in the current directory."
    else
      echo "There are no C files in the current directory."
    fi

Apparently the bourne shell permits a test such as

    if [ -f abc.c def.c xyz.c ]

probably by throwing away the def.c and xyz.c .  The korn
shell calls it a syntax error and fails the test even if
the first file exists.

I realize that the bourne shell never advertised that multiple
arguments were allowed, but it worked, I used it, and now I have a
handful of fairly large and often used scripts which I'd like to
get working under the ksh.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to the best way to
make these scripts palatable to the korn shell?


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