Re: autoconf test ': >emtpy' problem under Ultrix

[Eric Siegerman]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2001 at 11:23:10AM +0100, Akim Demaille wrote:
> Anyway, we really need to know how to create portably empty files, we
> use it at other places IIRC.

echo a | grep b >empty-file

Yucky, but it works :-)

I was going to suggest
        echo "" | grep . >empty-file
but if grep ever becomes like GNU sort, and considers the \n to
be part of the line, it'll stop working.

> +if diff /dev/null /dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1; then

If you don't have a /dev/null, but do have write permission on
/dev, this test will succeed.  Perhaps a corner case, but...

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        address@hidden
|  |  /
With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not
necessarily a good idea.
        - RFC 1925 (quoting an unnamed source)