From: jrvalverde@cnb.uam.es (Jose R. Valverde)
Subject: [TUHS] test / [
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 17:00:09 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20071205170009.3e807bec@veda.cnb.uam.es> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <ace45c0a0712041620u75009acmc2f82b7755cd39e2@mail.gmail.com>
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What I seem to remember is that it was a trick used in BSD to achieve
compatibility with SystemV shell scripts (the shell on System-V would
understand [ .. ] but the one on BSD wouldn't and making [ a symlink
to test would fix the problem).
My copy of Portable C and UNIX system programming only mentions that
the [ .. ] construct may be missing on some shell versions and this
can usually be fixed by symlinking [ to test.
A hardlink from /bin/[ to /bin/test was present on Ultrix since at
least 3.1, which would also attest to the BSDism or workaround for
non-System-V systems. Sorry, this is too far back in time for my
feeble memory.
j
On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 11:20:38 +1100
"Christopher Vance" <cjsvance at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 5, 2007 10:25 AM, Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog at lemis.com> wrote:
> > FreeBSD and NetBSD still have this link:
> >
> > $ ls -li /bin/[ /bin/test
> > 683091 -r-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 7460 Aug 19 2006 /bin/[
> > 683091 -r-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 7460 Aug 19 2006 /bin/test
> >
> > I suppose OpenBSD does too, but I don't have a machine to check.
>
> Still there as of the latest release.
>
> --
> Christopher Vance
> _______________________________________________
> TUHS mailing list
> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs
--
These opinions are mine and only mine. Hey man, I saw them first!
José R. Valverde
De nada sirve la Inteligencia Artificial cuando falta la Natural
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prev parent reply other threads:[~2007-12-05 16:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2007-11-21 13:35 Tim Bradshaw
2007-11-21 13:51 ` Jim Capp
2007-12-04 23:25 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2007-12-05 0:20 ` Christopher Vance
2007-12-05 16:00 ` Jose R. Valverde [this message]
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