Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community

Sponsored Content
Full Discussion: Test -e not working as expected (by me)
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Test -e not working as expected (by me) Post 302938109 by Don Cragun on Thursday 12th of March 2015 05:15:51 AM
Old 03-12-2015
Robin is correct. It all depends on what resolves means. And, the standards lawyers love stuff like this. And, the text agenda.kgb quoted:
Quote:
If a symbolic link is encountered during pathname resolution, the behavior shall depend on whether the pathname component is at the end of the pathname and on the function being performed. If all of the following are true, then pathname resolution is complete:
  • This is the last pathname component of the pathname.
  • The pathname has no trailing slash.
  • The function is required to act on the symbolic link itself, or certain arguments direct that the function act on the symbolic link itself.
is the key here. If the function you're using is stat(), then pathname resolution is NOT complete when the final component of a path names a symbolic link and the file named by the symlink does not exist. If the function you're using is lstat(), then pathname resolution is complete because the description of the stat() and lstat() functions explicitly states:
Quote:
The lstat() function shall be equivalent to stat(), except when path refers to a symbolic link. In that case lstat() shall return information about the link, while stat() shall return information about the file the link references.
And, in the Commands and Utilities Volume of the POSIX standards, pathname resolution is not complete when a symlink is found at the end of the path unless the utility description explicitly states that a symbolic link is being processed rather than the file the symlink references. The description of test -L pathname is:
Quote:
True if pathname resolves to an existing directory entry for a symbolic link. False if pathname cannot be resolved, or if pathname resolves to an existing directory entry for a file that is not a symbolic link. If the final component of pathname is a symbolic link, that symbolic link is not followed.
which makes it clear that for the -L option, test needs to use the equivalent of lstat(pathname, ...). But, the description of test -e:
Quote:
True if pathname resolves to an existing directory entry. False if pathname cannot be resolved.
does not make any exception for symlinks. So, it needs to use the equivalent of stat(pathname, ...).

Speaking as a standards lawyer, it appears to me that the ksh88 AIX 7.1 test -e and test -L utility is behaving properly.
These 3 Users Gave Thanks to Don Cragun For This Post:
CarloM jim mcnamara rbatte1
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

test:argument expected

Hi all, I am getting "test:argument expected" error in the following script LOGDIR=$XXAR_TOP/log PROGRAM_NAME=XXAR_GPS_LBFDMSGEN .. .. .. Check_Errors() { sqllogfile=$1 cd ${LOGDIR} countfile=${LOGDIR}/${PROGRAM_NAME}.tmp echo "countfile is " $countfile >> $LOGFILE echo... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: rrs
4 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

test: argument expected

Can someone help me with a very simple query I have the following script: #!/bin/sh VAR1="" if then VAR1="Message" fi echo $VAR1 put when i run it i get the following error test_job.sh: test: argument expected (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: andy202
5 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

test: argument expected

I'm newbie to coding script so i found test: argument expected when i run it. please help me a=`df -k |awk '{print $5 }'|egrep "(100%|%)"|cut -d"%" -f1|tail -1` if then df -k|egrep "(100%|%)"|awk '{print $1,$5,$6}' else echo "No disk capacity more than 80%" fi thk in advance (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: unitipon
7 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

test: argument expected

+ test.sh: test: argument expected #!/bin/bash if then echo thennnn else echo elseeee fi why does it show this error? Clearly from debug mode, the argument is passed. I also tried if Run on Solaris 9. Thanks (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: lalelle
10 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

crontab test argument expected

Hello folks, I've got this script which runs perfectly when i run it manually. But when i am running it from a crontab i am getting an error saying test argument expected. The line from where it is coming is something like this: if then do something fi Any idea why? (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: King Nothing
2 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Test: argument expected.

Hi, Since i am new to Unix and on suggestion on some smart guys on unix... i have decide to learn more deeply on Unix...so i was kind of playing with if statements and found this error... though i tried to correct is for hours now i couldnt find whats wrong in my loop. if then ... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: bhagya2340
4 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

test: argument expected

# to search a file if it exists and whether its readable or not # if yes print its first 5 lines echo enter the filename to be searched read fname if #-d $fname then echo file doesn exists elif then echo its a directory elif then cat $fname else echo its not readable fi # end of... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: gotam
9 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

error : test: argument expected

Hello all, I am trying to figure out why i am getting an error while executing the script...altought it seems like its work...but still get the test arguement error...any help would be appericiate...this script basically connects to any oracle db ( just have to pass db name to it)... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: abdul.irfan2
4 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Error- test: argument expected

check_build_info_table() { if then export build_info_table=`sqlplus -s sna/dbmanager <<! set pagesize 0 heading off feedback off SELECT DISTINCT TABLE_NAME FROM ALL_TABLES WHERE OWNER = 'XYZ' AND TABLE_NAME = 'MY_TABLE'; exit !` ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: ambarginni
3 Replies

10. Shell Programming and Scripting

Test: argument expected

The following example prompts are passed into the shell script. $1 = /tmp/dir/ $2 = varies (test.txt, test1.txt, test2.txt...) $3 = test_YYYYMMDD.txt --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/sh cd $1 if ; then if ; then ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: smkremer
3 Replies
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 08:02 AM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy