Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!mcdchg!chinet!att!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!gatech!ncar!ames!lll-lcc!lll-winken!arisia!cdp!hemenway
From: hemenway@cdp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: 4.3bsd sh problems
Message-ID: <67700005@cdp>
Date: 30 Oct 88 03:51:00 GMT
Lines: 32
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:67700005:000:971
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hemenway    Oct 29 20:51:00 1988


I have been porting some scripts from the System V sh to the 4.3bsd sh
and have some problems.  Any ideas/explanations would be appreciated.

1. I/O redirection problem:
	:
	exec 2> /dev/null
	echo This message goes to /dev/null as it should. 1>&2
	xxabcxx		# error message should go to /dev/null--it doesn't
	< xxabcxx 	# error message should go to /dev/null--it doesn't

The above script sends sh error messages to /dev/null only when stderr is
redirected to /dev/null from the command line that called the script.

2. Problem with test -w:
When I use the -w primitive with test to test a directory, it reports
that the directory is not writeable, regardless of whether it is. 
The -r primitive works fine with directories.

	:
	# if $1 is a directory, this segment reports that $1 is not
	# writeable, regardless of whether it is

	if [ -w "$1" ]
	then
	    echo "write perm"
	else
	    echo "no write perm"
	fi


Kathy Hemenway
{uunet,ucbvax!hplabs}!cdp!sobell!kathy