Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2024 16:16:46 +0200
From: <tlaro...@kergis.com>
Message-ID: <zp-7tnec2u-uh...@kergis.com>
| -e file True if file exists (regardless of type).
|
| let me wondering: what "file" is supposed to exist? The symlink by
| itself? or what it points to?
Note the following wording in test(1) just before the EXIT STATUS
section heading:
Note that all file tests with the exception of -h and -L follow symbolic
links and thus evaluate the test for the file pointed at.
Which is another way of saying that they use stat(2) rather than lstat(2)
except for -h (and the obsolete -L).
You can verify this by doing:
$ ln -s /foo/bar /tmp/SL
$ test -e /tmp/SL && echo SL exists
$
Needless to say the assumption here is that /foo/bar does not exist.
To achieve what you want:
$ test -e /tmp/SL || test -h /tmp/SL && echo SL exists or is a symlink
SL exists or is a symlink
$
If you need a single (unraceable) test, that can often be achieved by
attempting to make a link to the target filename, as link(2) and hence
ln(1) without -f will fail if the target name exists.
kre
