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coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x)
From: |
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña |
Subject: |
coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x) |
Date: |
Wed, 8 Sep 2004 09:55:01 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.6+20040722i |
Package: coreutils
Priority: wishlist
Version: 5.2.1-2
Tags: patch upstream
(Note: I'm CCing address@hidden, if this is not the appropiate way
to forward upstream, please bear with me)
The description of how -e behaves is somewhat ambiguous in test's manpage.
The manpage says that it will return true if the FILE exists but, for
symbolic links it will only return true if the FILE it points to exists:
-----------------------------
$ touch test
$ ln -s test testl
$ [ -e testl ] && echo true
true
$ rm test
$ [ -e testl ] && echo true
-----------------------------
Other manpage improvements in the patch include those present in *BSDs
manpages [1] and related to -w and -x.
Maybe the manpage could be ammended (see the patch attached).
If the manpage is reviewed maybe it's worth reviewing also Debian
bug #230957 (I can't understand why it is tagged 'wontfix' by the Debian
maintainer)
Regards
Javier
[1]
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=test&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=OpenBSD+Current&arch=i386&format=html
PS: It looks like *BSDs resolve this ambiguity by having -e return true if
the file exists regardless of its type. However a change to this behaviour
will probably break a lot of stuff that depend on it.
- coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x),
Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña <=
- Re: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, 2004/09/08
- Re: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Alfred M. Szmidt, 2004/09/08
- Re: Bug#270594: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Jim Meyering, 2004/09/08
- Re: Bug#270594: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, 2004/09/08
- Re: Bug#270594: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Paul Eggert, 2004/09/09
- Re: Bug#270594: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, 2004/09/09
- Re: Bug#270594: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Paul Eggert, 2004/09/09
- Re: Bug#270594: coreutils: Test manpage improvements (-e, -w and -x), Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, 2004/09/09