Re: Validating files and directories

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

On Sat, 13 Nov 2021, irenezerafa wrote:
...
> > The unary -a and -e operators in test are identical in bash.
> >
> > If you want more backstory, check the POSIX test(1p) man page:
> > but there was no easy way to determine that an existing file was a reg‐
> > ular file. 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.
>
> You seem used to give useless information like unix backstories.  Only
> unix nutcases delve into that.
>
> > The POSIX test command only supports the unary -e operator, and does not
> > list a unary -a operator. (And the binary -a is considered obsolescent.)
>
> Gnu Bash could moves on and stop supporting and maintaining -a.
>
> Here is what bash reference manual says -
>
> 6.4 Bash Conditional Expressions
>
> -a file
>    True if file exists.
>
> -e file
>    True if file exists.
>
> How is anybody able to figure out anything from that !

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if they are both
documented as doing the same thing that they DO actually do
the same thing.

--
   Chris F.A. Johnson