On 8/10/11 2:53 PM, Curtis Doty wrote:
> Or maybe I'm not groking. When one compares against a b0rk symlink, the
> result of -nt (newer than) is true--when it isn't!
>
> mkdir directory
> ln -s noexist symlink
> touch -hr directory symlink
>
> test directory -nt symlink &&echo yes ||echo no
>
> They have identical mtimes (as set by touch)--i.e. the directory is *not*
> newer than the symlink--but it still outputs "yes". Why?
The man page says:
Unless otherwise specified, primaries that operate on files follow sym-
bolic links and operate on the target of the link, rather than the link
itself.
and
file1 -nt file2
True if file1 is newer (according to modification date) than
file2, or if file1 exists and file2 does not.
file1 exists. file2 does not.
Chet
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU [email protected] http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/
