Martin Schwenke wrote:
> Paul Jarc writes:
> > It's documented, but it's easy to miss. Just before the
> > list of parameter expansion forms is this paragraph:
> >
> > In each of the cases below, word is subject to tilde
> > expansion, parameter expansion, command substitution,
> > and arithmetic expansion. When not performing
> > substring expansion, bash tests for a parameter that
> > is unset or null; omitting the colon results in a
> > test only for a parameter that is unset.
>
> Ouch! Can I suggest that this documentation could be improved, since
> it is so easy to miss and that I missed it at least 4 times when
> actually looking for it? ;-)
Let me cast a vote for this too. I know what it does but have also
found myself "looking for it" specifically because I am looking for
":" and not "colon". If the colon character ':' were mentioned in the
description I think that would make this much clearer. Let me suggest
that something similar to the following addition would help here.
is unset or null; omitting the colon (':') results in a
test only for a parameter that is unset.
Then searches on ":" would also find that descriptive text too.
Bob
