On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 04:43:28PM -0400, Marko A. Jennings alleged: > On Mon, March 31, 2008 4:37 pm, Tim Alberts wrote: > > Why does 'test -f' and 'test -e' return true on a (hidden) file that > > doesn't exist? > > > > *> cat /home/talberts/.forward* > > cat: /home/talberts/.forward: No such file or directory > > *> test -f /home/talberts/.forward ;echo $?* > > 1 > > *> test -e /home/talberts/.forward ;echo $?* > > 1 > > 0 = exists > 1 = does not exist
And to expand on that a bit... shell commands do not return the normal boolean true/false, they return zero for success and non-zero for errors. Using non-zero for errors is handy for indicating the type or reason for the error. -- Garrick Staples, GNU/Linux HPCC SysAdmin University of Southern California Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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