On 22/03/2024 11:20, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
With GNU Coreutils 9.4, both "test -a -a -a" and "test -o -o -o" fail:
$ export POSIXLY_CORRECT=1
$ /usr/bin/test -a -a -a ; echo $?
/usr/bin/test: ‘-a’: unary operator expected
2
$ /usr/bin/test -o -o -o ; echo $?
/usr/bin/test: ‘-o’: unary operator expected
2
According to POSIX, they should return 0.
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/test.html
says for 3 arguments:
If $2 is a binary primary, perform the binary test of $1 and $3.
Here, $2 is -a and -o respectively, which are binary primaries.
And both $1 and $3 are non-null strings.
Agreed. Any leading '-' triggers this:
$ env test -. -a -.
test: ‘-.’: unary operator expected
Note we already advise (as does POSIX) to avoid '-a' and '-o':
https://debbugs.gnu.org/22909
BTW POSIX advises to use parenthesis to avoid some parsing ambiguities,
and it helps in this case too:
$ env test \( -a \) -a \( -a \); echo $?
0
Though I see bash 5.2.26 has issue with it :/
$ test \( -a \) -a \( -a \)
bash: test: `)' expected
bash doesn't like the -a in particular, and is ok with other strings:
$ test \( -. \) -a \( -. \); echo $?
0
cheers,
Pádraig
