From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon May 28 13:59:58 2001
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From: patl@Phoenix.Volant.ORG
Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 13:59:49 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: patl@Phoenix.Volant.ORG
Subject: Re: Need help with Bash function
To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org>
Cc: Jim Conner <jconner@enterit.com>,
	Duke Normandin <01031149@3web.net>, questions@freebsd.org
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On 28-May-01 at 09:39, Mike Meyer (mwm@mired.org) wrote:
> Jim Conner <jconner@enterit.com> types:
> > The only thing you are lacking is quotes in your condition...
> > 
> >   function ezq() {
> >       if [ -a "~/tmp/*" ]
> >       then
> >           echo -e "there's something here....\n"
> >       else
> >           echo -e "empty....\n"
> >     fi
> >   }
> > 
> > Now, I ususally use ksh but bash should be able to do the same thing.
> 
> That doesn't work in bash here. I suspect that the version of test
> built into ksh and bash are different. Just out of curiosity, did you
> test it with more than one file in ~/tmp?

I missed the beginning of the thread; so I'm not sure what the actual
goal is; but you should be able to use:

	if [ $(ls -a /tmp | wc -l) -eq 2 ]
	then
		echo "empty...\n"
	else
		echo "there's something here...\n"
	fi

Note that this form also detects hidden files (those starting with
a period.)  To ignore them, change the test to:

	if [ $(ls /tmp | wc -l) -eq 0 ]

If you want to be absolutely certain that you're using the built-in
version of test, use

	if builtin [ $(ls ...



-Pat

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