Re: Option "-n" not working reliably and poorly documented

[Paul Jarc]

Ronny Standtke <ronny.standtke@fhnw.ch> wrote:
> The "-n" option not seem to work. Example with a little stupid nonsense
> script:
> -----------
> ronny@ronny-desktop:/tmp$ cat test.sh
> #!/bin/sh
> if [ $blah == "test"]

This sort of error can't be caught by -n, because it's part of a
specific command, not the shell grammar.  Checking for ] is done when
the [ command is executed.  Since -n disables execution of all
commands, [ won't have a chance to check for a matching ].

> Another strange thing: The man page of bash does only implicitly mention
> the "-n" option in the description of the "-D" option: "This implies the
> -n option; no commands will be executed."

It's documented under the "set" builtin.


paul