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Re: bug? "type -P xxx" returns "xxx" that isn't executable...(or readabl


From: Linda Walsh
Subject: Re: bug? "type -P xxx" returns "xxx" that isn't executable...(or readable)
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:30:58 -0700
User-agent: Thunderbird



Mike Frysinger wrote:
type -P reflects what the shell will attempt, not what is useful. the fact that it's not usable is irrelevant.
----
        The fact that it is not usable is relevant.

        The type command says it will return the name of
the file that will be executed if name was used as  a
command name, this is true.

        However, I would say that returning non-executable
objects for use as a command is not very useful if you are
looking for a command.  If the file cannot be executed (and,
especially, isn't readable), bash returns an answer it *knows*
is wrong for use as a command.



if you want to see if it's executable, use `[ -x ... ]`.
-mike
-----
Bash checks if they are executable -- when /bin/echo was
executable, my PATH has /usr/bin before /bin and bash
skipped /usr/bin/echo because it wasn't accessible and
returned /bin/echo because it was executable.   Only
when /bin/echo was made unexecutable did bash return
a non-executable file for use as a command -- instead
of returning nothing ("").

It's also the case, that I can test if 'echo' is there
or not, till I'm blue in the face, but that doesn't indicate
whether or not the command will work, in this case, as it
is a builtin.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I think the type command is
*fundamentally*, used to look up commands -- things that are
executable.  Returning something that isn't because it fits
some Faustian rules seems a bit perverse, no?









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