From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Jun 10 19:53:03 2013
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org
 [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1])
 by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 46F29F79
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:53:03 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org)
Received: from plane.gmane.org (plane.gmane.org [80.91.229.3])
 by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 09B5F1E02
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:53:02 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69)
 (envelope-from <freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org>) id 1Um895-0006kQ-SZ
 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:52:56 +0200
Received: from 79-139-19-75.prenet.pl ([79.139.19.75])
 by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian))
 id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:52:51 +0200
Received: from jb.1234abcd by 79-139-19-75.prenet.pl with local (Gmexim 0.1
 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00
 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:52:51 +0200
X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
From: jb <jb.1234abcd@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Bourne shell "if" syntax
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:52:37 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <loom.20130610T214814-692@post.gmane.org>
References: <51b620a6.42f.2b6a6400.5605dcf0@go2france.com>
 <121701ce660c$9a9aa5b0$cfcff110$@freebsd.org>
 <51B62389.5000500@tundraware.com>
 <121b01ce660e$2abae5f0$8030b1d0$@freebsd.org>
 <51B62622.1070201@tundraware.com>
 <CAHu1Y70FNX8G2ARF5zBzRbu5iMsXVkUCouBk-YruY3xH1gWsqg@mail.gmail.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org
X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: sea.gmane.org
User-Agent: Loom/3.14 (http://gmane.org/)
X-Loom-IP: 79.139.19.75 (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686;
 rv:21.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/21.0)
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:53:03 -0000

Michael Sierchio <kudzu <at> tenebras.com> writes:

> ... 
> Right.  Many scripts seem to assume that sh is bash, and that's
> certainly not the case here.
> 
> if [ "x$BLAH" = "x" ]; then
> 
> is the most reliable and portable way of determining if it's a string
> of zero length.

Actually this trick is not needed any more (it has not been required for
long time because the problem was fixed).
http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/hotspot-runtime-dev/2012-August/004275.html

jb