Test-ing file types

[Maciek Olczak]

Hi

In rather unfortunate situation I found that /usr/bin/test gives false positive results when asked to test file types when no argument (null value) is supplied.  Eg:

#  if [ -d ${file} ]; then echo success; fi
success
#
#  echo ~${file}~
~~
#  [ -d ${file} ]; echo $?
0
#
#  /usr/bin/test --version
test (GNU coreutils) 4.5.3
Written by FIXME: ksb and mjb.

Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
#

There may be some explanation for such behaviour to be reasonable, (see http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-sh-utils/2002-05/msg00018.html).  If there is not, I guess test could be changed to follow the same logic as with test in-built into bash, for example.  There I get more logical results:

#  if [[ -d ${file} ]]; then echo success; fi
#
#  [[ -d ${file} ]]; echo $?
1
#

Kind regards

Maciek Olczak
Tramada Systems Pty. Ltd.