Date: 28 Apr 2006 20:46:43 -0400 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org> To: Martin McCormick <martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Bourn Shell -n Flag Questions Message-ID: <44psj1dx8s.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> In-Reply-To: <200604281634.k3SGYNhn093282@dc.cis.okstate.edu> References: <200604281634.k3SGYNhn093282@dc.cis.okstate.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Martin McCormick <martin@dc.cis.okstate.edu> writes: > I read about the noexecute flag or -n flag which is supposed > to check the syntax of a Bourn Shell script to see what it would do if > run, but not actually do anything. This sounds like a wonderful > thing, especially when one is going to run a dangerous script and you > only get one chance to get it right. > > I tried sh -n scriptname and it always silently succeeds even > if I type sh -x -n somescript. I even deliberately created a script > with a syntax error in it and tried sh -x -n again. It still did > nothing but exit. Does this just not work or am I misunderstanding > the purpose of the flag? I don't know where you checked the syntax of the Bourne Shell, but FreeBSD's /bin/sh (which although not actually derived from Steve Bourne's code does a pretty good job of covering the POSIX requirements for sh, and a bunch of useful additions as well) is specific to noninteractive use. According to its manual, anyway.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?44psj1dx8s.fsf>