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Re: Strange (wrong?) behaviour of "test ! -a file"

From Ilkka Virta <itvirta@iki.fi>
Newsgroups gnu.bash.bug
Subject Re: Strange (wrong?) behaviour of "test ! -a file"
Date 2018-10-21 21:24 +0300
Message-ID <mailman.2551.1540146298.1284.bug-bash@gnu.org> (permalink)
References <20181021113211.23c6b725374a558e83bf6718@schrader-schulte.de> <be0268da-66dd-4f3d-1f4d-d08706a8108c@case.edu>

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On 21.10. 20:03, Chet Ramey wrote:
> The help text for test says
> 
> "The behavior of test depends on the number of arguments.  Read the
> bash manual page for the complete specification."

Can I suggest adding that note from the help text to the manual under 
"Bash Conditional Expressions" too? Perhaps also explicitly noting the 
clash with the binary operators in the descriptions of -a and -o, too.

Something along the lines of the attached patch.

I also think the description of the 3-argument test would be clearer 
with numbering, so I added that too.

-- 
Ilkka Virta / itvirta@iki.fi

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Re: Strange (wrong?) behaviour of "test ! -a file" Ilkka Virta <itvirta@iki.fi> - 2018-10-21 21:24 +0300

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