On Tue, Nov 17, 1998 at 11:04:28PM -0500, Raul Miller wrote: > Cylord <C@Cryogen.com> wrote: > > > if [ "$(echo * ? .*)" = "* ? . .." ] ; then echo REALLY empty dir; fi > > You also need .? or else you're subject to: > > mkdir emptydir2; touch .* With that echo command, 'touch ".*"' gives an echo result of: * ? . .* .. Which is not equal, giving the desired result.