Re: Bug with 'test' built-in.

[mwoehlke]

John Wenker wrote:
> Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
> Machine: i686
> OS: linux-gnu
> Compiler: gcc
> Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' 
> -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu' 
> -DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -D_GNU_SOURCE  -I.  -I. 
> -I./include -I./lib -O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686
> uname output: Linux ragtop 2.4.18-3 #1 Thu Apr 18 07:32:41 EDT 2002 i686 
> unknown
> Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu
>
> Bash Version: 2.05a

And despite this version being ancient, I'll point out that I can 
reproduce (assuming this isn't a case of wrong syntax) on 
"3.00.15(1)-release" (whatever that is; came with FC4) and 3.1.17 built 
from sources.

To venture a guess, it seems like '-a' is being parsed as 'and' in this 
case, rather than the test for file existence.

> Patch Level: 0
> Release Status: release
>
> Description:
>         There is a problem using '!' (boolean negation) with the -a flag
>       of the 'test' built-in command.  The following construct
>       _always_ evaluates true, regardless of whether the file exists
>       or not.
>
>          if [ ! -a file ]; then
>             echo "This line always prints no matter what."
>          else
>             echo "This line never prints."
>          fi
>
>       Using -a w/o the negation works fine.

--
Matthew
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