Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!dino!sharkey!itivax!scs
From: scs@iti.org (Steve Simmons)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general
Subject: Re: YAkshBug
Keywords: ksh bug
Message-ID: <4886@itivax.iti.org>
Date: 2 Feb 90 21:02:33 GMT
References: <682@uncle.UUCP>
Sender: news@itivax.iti.org
Lines: 28

jbm@uncle.UUCP (John B. Milton) writes:

>Well, bug or inconsistancy:

>if [ -f * ]; then echo yes; fi

>will print "yes" if there are one or more files when using /bin/sh, but
>not with ksh. Ksh gives a syntax error.

>if sh -c "test -f *"; then echo yes; fi

>Does work.

Inconsistancy.  Strictly speaking

	if [ -f a b ] ; then . . .

is incorrect.  The '-f' test takes one and only one arguement.  /bin/sh
silently ignores the extra, while /bin/ksh reports the error.  My source
on this is David Korn.  Interestingly enough, what would

	if [ -f a b -a -f c ] ; then ...

do?  How many arguements does sh ignore, and which ones?  'if [ -f a b ]'
is definately a shell bug waiting to happen, and while it was disturbing
to find the inconsistancy between the two I'd much prefer the error notice.

Steve