Please keep the mailing list in the reply. I have set Reply-To accordingly.
Bala Murugan wrote:
> I am using bash shell. When I tried to do this i getting this.I am getting
> this error.
>
> [balamup2@cl-flor-dvvm026 ~]$ echo $SHELL
> */bin/bash*
I am sure that those '*' characters are not there. You must have
added them for emphasis.
> [balamup2@cl-flor-dvvm026 ~]$ ls
> *test1.txt test3.txt testdir test.txt*
So you have three files that match test*.txt in that directory.
> [balamup2@cl-flor-dvvm026 ~]$ test -f test*.txt
> *-bash: test: too many arguments*
That is correct. You are passing in too many arguments. The test -f
operator requires one argument. You have passed *three* arguments.
That is two too many.
You can verify this by using 'echo'. Try this:
$ echo test -f test*.txt
Using that you will see that the test*.txt is matching and being
expanded by the shell into three arguments.
It is almost always incorrect to pass a '*' or other shell file glob
metacharacter unquoted on the command line to test. Your usage is
very problematic. Instead you may want to loop over the files.
for file in test*.txt; do
test -f "$file" && echo file: "$file" || echo nofile: "$file"
done
> But my friend is using ksh shell. He is fine with that command .
But does your friend have three files that match that file glob in his
directory? Have you friend do this:
$ touch test1.txt test2.txt test3.txt
$ echo test -f test*.txt
$ test -f test*.txt
By creating the extra files with touch that should ensure that
multiple files are matched.
> I will past this O/P also.
>
> $ echo $SHELL
> */usr/bin/ksh*
>
> $ ls
> *123.txt a1.txt abc.txt a.txt dead.letter nohup.out ww1.txt*
>
> $ test -f a*.txt
> $ echo $?
> *0*
I cannot reproduce that result. I tried this:
$ mkdir /tmp/testdir
$ cd /tmp/testdir
/testdir$ touch 123.txt a1.txt abc.txt a.txt dead.letter nohup.out ww1.txt
/testdir$ ls a*.txt
a.txt a1.txt abc.txt
/testdir$ test -f a*.txt
bash: test: too many arguments
That is correct behavior because a*.txt matches several files.
> Please take a deep look and resolve this problem
I am sorry but I think this is simply incorrect usage.
Bob
