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Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 09:35:38 -0700
From: "Jin Guojun[ITG]" <jin@george.lbl.gov>
Message-Id: <199606041635.JAA05219@george.lbl.gov>
To: wosch@cs.tu-berlin.de
Subject: Re: test(1) (was sh bug)
Cc: bugs@freebsd.org, problem@bsdi.com
Sender: owner-bugs@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

} Jin Guojun[ITG writes:
} >The sh in BSD does not take "-" as the argument in if statement if the
} >statement has more than one comparsions.
} >The following line are generating errors:
} >
} >if [ "$1 = "-h" -o "$1" = "-help" ]; then
}          ^
} you forgot a quote, but this is not the problem

This is a typo when doing copy and paste.

} >ERROR:
} >+ [ -h = -h -o -h = -help ]
} >[: syntax error: Undefined error: 0
} >
} >
} >but, it works in a single argument if statement:
} >
} >if [ "$1 = "-h" ];     then
} > ...
} >fi
} >
} >Would some one please fix it?
} 
} workaround:
} if [ X"$1" = X"-h" -o "$1" = "-help" ]; then
}      ^       ^
} 
} or use a case statement:
} case "$1" in
}         -h|-help) echo usage;; 
} esac
} 
} 
} Note: this is a test(1) bug, not a bug in sh(1). test (alias `[') is
} *not* a sh builtin.
} 
} Wolfram

Good, I think it is easy to fix when it is really needed
since this is a test(1) bug.
There is no problem to get around this situation. If I remember correctly,
I only saw this problem under old Ultrix a quite ago.
Almost all workstation systems accept "-XXX" in test(1) now,
including SOLARIS/IRIX -- POSIX compliance. So, I just wonder if BSD should
do the samething and make it better.

Thank you for the information,


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