> > No no no. Look at this:
> >
> > arianna% test -e /; echo $?
> > test: argument expected
> > -1
>
> Excuse me if I'm wrong, but the prompt looks suspiciously like a
> csh prompt. Please make sure to run /bin/sh and test there.
>
> You are right, but nothing changes:
>
> $ test -e /; echo $? <--- here is the problem
> test: argument expected
What do you mean by `nothing changes'?
Ehr. We have a communication problem :-)
I said that /bin/sh isn't executing the second command on this line
(the echo command), and that's correct.
The first example I gave is wrong (and in fact I said you were right).
tcsh was executing the second command, it was printing "-1".
Yes, this was in the first (wrong) example I gave).
The thing to try is to send `test -e /' as one command, and then `echo
$?' as another.
I do that in the following, but my second example above proves that the
problem is still there. Here is one more test case:
arianna% exec /bin/sh
$
$ # Ok, now this is a Bourne shell. This is a proof:
$ a=b
$ export a
$ echo $a
b
$ test -e /
test: argument expected
$ echo $?
1
$ test -e /; echo $?
test: argument expected
$ type test
test is a shell builtin
$ /bin/test -e /; echo $?
0
$ /usr/bin/test -e /; echo $?
0
$ /bin/test --version
$ /usr/bin/test --version
$
