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ksh(!93) for loop with wildcard and empty directory

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# 1  
Old 08-11-2011
ksh(!93) for loop with wildcard and empty directory
I'm sure this is by design, but using something like
Code:
for f in dir/*
do echo $f
done


produces unexpected (to me) results if run against an empty directory. I'd have expected it to not execute the loop, but it actually calls it with f set to 'dir/*'.

Now I know that I'm trying to protect against it:
Code:
for f in dir/*
do [ -f $f ] && #do something


I've got paranoid though, that if a file is created between the for statement and the file test, the test will succeed and the loop will execute with f = 'dir/*'. This is likely to cause interesting results Smilie

The only solution I can think of is checking the value of f:
Code:
[ "$f" != "dir/*" ] && #do something


but it seems so inelegant, is there a better way?

NB Using an early version of ksh (88?) on Solaris

# 2  
Old 08-11-2011
Code:
find DIR | while read f; do
...
done

# 3  
Old 08-11-2011
That would do it Smilie

Cheers
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