[TUHS] test / [

[TUHS] test / [

[Tim Bradshaw]

Does anyone know (remember) which Unices had .../bin/[ be a link  
to .../bin/test.  I remember this being the case, but it is not so on  
any recent Solaris. It is the case on my Mac, so in at least one BSD  
derivative.  I looked through a 7th edition tarball from the archive  
and it's not the case there. So my guess is that it is a BSDism, and  
it probably was the case in SunOS 4 and before, and I guess on at  
least 4.2BSD & later.

Thanks

--tim

[TUHS] test / [

[Jim Capp]

On Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 01:35:53PM +0000, Tim Bradshaw wrote:
> Does anyone know (remember) which Unices had .../bin/[ be a link  
> to .../bin/test.  I remember this being the case, but it is not so on  
> any recent Solaris. It is the case on my Mac, so in at least one BSD  
> derivative.  I looked through a 7th edition tarball from the archive  
> and it's not the case there. So my guess is that it is a BSDism, and  
> it probably was the case in SunOS 4 and before, and I guess on at  
> least 4.2BSD & later.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> --tim

I remember using /bin/[ in SCO Xenix and SCO Unix, and AT&T SYS III &
SYS V

Jim

> _______________________________________________
> TUHS mailing list
> TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs
> 

[TUHS] test / [

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Wednesday, 21 November 2007 at  8:51:04 -0500, Jim Capp wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 01:35:53PM +0000, Tim Bradshaw wrote:
>> Does anyone know (remember) which Unices had .../bin/[ be a link
>> to .../bin/test.  I remember this being the case, but it is not so on
>> any recent Solaris. It is the case on my Mac, so in at least one BSD
>> derivative.  I looked through a 7th edition tarball from the archive
>> and it's not the case there. So my guess is that it is a BSDism, and
>> it probably was the case in SunOS 4 and before, and I guess on at
>> least 4.2BSD & later.
>
> I remember using /bin/[ in SCO Xenix and SCO Unix, and AT&T SYS III &
> SYS V

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.

Greg
--
Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key.
See complete headers for address and phone numbers.
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[TUHS] test / [

[Christopher Vance]

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] test / [

[Jose R. Valverde]

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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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