[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it
From: |
Bernhard Voelker |
Subject: |
bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it |
Date: |
Sat, 20 Oct 2018 00:56:01 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.2.1 |
On 10/19/18 10:48 PM, Martin Schulte wrote:
> Hello coreutils maintainers,
>
> test in coreutils 8.30 supports the unary -a test (is the same as -e) but
> this is not listed on the manpage (in bash 4.4.12 "help test" does list
> it).
>
> I can imagine good reasons to kick out the unary -a but I think it
> then should be kicked out of program and man page (or it should be listed
> in the man page, maybe as deprecated).
Good spot, thanks for the report.
The '-a FILE' primary is supported since "the beginning", and even the
POSIX spec mentions this unlucky thing:
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/test.html
An early proposal used the KornShell -a primary (with the same meaning),
but this was changed to -e because there were concerns about the high
probability of humans confusing the -a primary with the -a binary operator.
I don't think we can remove that primary without breaking some scripts,
so it's probably best to document it.
The attached, proposed patch add documentation both in the man and
texinfo format.
Comments?
Have a nice day,
Berny
0001-doc-document-highly-discouraged-test-a-FILE-primary.patch
Description: Text Data
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Martin Schulte, 2018/10/19
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it,
Bernhard Voelker <=
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Assaf Gordon, 2018/10/19
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Paul Eggert, 2018/10/20
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Martin Schulte, 2018/10/21
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Martin Schulte, 2018/10/21
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Bernhard Voelker, 2018/10/21
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Pádraig Brady, 2018/10/22
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Bernhard Voelker, 2018/10/22
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Assaf Gordon, 2018/10/22
- bug#33097: test has filetest -a but man page doesn't list it, Bernhard Voelker, 2018/10/26