Inapplicable "No such file or directory" Message

[Andrew Piziali]

From: andy@verisity.com
To: bug-bash@gnu.org
Subject: Inapplicable "No such file or directory" Message

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  -I.  -I. -I./include -I./lib
-D_GNU_SOURCE  -O2 -g -march=i386 -mcpu=i686
uname output: Linux elijah2 2.4.18-14 #1 Wed Sep 4 13:35:50 EDT 2002
i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 2.05b
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:
        If bash is unable to create a file (say "abc") using the ">" I/O
        redirection operator because the current working directory is
        not writable, it reports the message:

           bash: abc: No such file or directory

        This is very misleading and cost me several hours of work,
        trying to diagnose a shell program problem.

Repeat-By:
        $ cd /tmp

        $ mkdir bashbug

        $ chmod 555 bashbug

        $ cd bashbug

        $ echo xyz >abc
        bash: abc: No such file or directory

        $

Fix:
        The message should be changed to:

           bash: Cannot create file "abc" because directory is
unwritable


-- 
        Andrew Piziali, <andy@verisity.com>, +1-972-516-3773