[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [ in /usr/bin Question



On Wed, May 09, 2007 at 12:25:14PM -0400, Greg Folkert wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-05-09 at 18:01 +0200, Mathias Brodala wrote:
> > Hi Greg.
> > 
> > Greg Folkert, 09.05.2007 17:37:
> > > On Wed, 2007-05-09 at 21:07 +0800, Wang Xu wrote:
> > >> On Wed, May 09, 2007 at 09:01:50AM -0400, Tom Grove wrote:
> > >>> Hello all...I am new to this Debian thing :-)  I used it in the Woody 
> > >>> days but moved over to the FreeBSD world for the last few years.  I 
> > >>> recently installed Testing (Lenny) and see the left bracket in my 
> > >>> /usr/bin directory and do not know what it is.  When I ls -al it I get:
> > >>>
> > >>> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 24752 2007-01-30 13:51 /usr/bin/[
> > >>>
> > >>> This leads me to believe that it was installed with the base system or 
> > >>> some package because I just installed the system earlier this week.  Any 
> > >>> help is much appreciated.  Thanks.
> > >> it is test(1)
> > > 
> > >         greg@princess:~$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/\[ 
> > >         dpkg: /usr/bin/[ not found.
> > >         greg@princess:~$ file /usr/bin/\[ 
> > >         /usr/bin/[: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.4.1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped
> > >         greg@princess:~$ which test
> > >         /usr/bin/test
> > >         greg@princess:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/\[ /usr/bin/test
> > >         -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 24984 2006-08-16 07:52 /usr/bin/[
> > >         -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 23024 2006-08-16 07:52 /usr/bin/test
> > >         greg@princess:~$ /usr/bin/\[ 
> > >         /usr/bin/[: missing `]'
> > >         greg@princess:~$ /usr/bin/test
> > >         greg@princess:~$ 
> > > 
> > > Hmmm. I wonder what this all means.
> > 
> > That "[" and "test" actually do the same but "[" has a bit more code in it. (For
> > checking for the closing "]" and for the output of "--help" and such, I guess.)
> > 
> > I???m not sure what you are wondering now.
> 
> Yes, you hit exactly the wondering.

You lost me.  Were you wondering what you where thinking!?  Or why you 
weren't sure what you were wondering?  Wondrous wonders...  HELP!!!

> Looks like Bob McGowan also wonders why. I was used to seeing it as a
> hardlink to test.

This is open source, so why wonder?  The source will tell.  And as far 
as I can see, Mathias Brodala is spot on...

-- 
Karl E. Jorgensen
karl@jorgensen.org.uk  http://www.jorgensen.org.uk/
karl@jorgensen.com     http://karl.jorgensen.com
==== Today's fortune:
When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
		-- Harry Truman

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


Reply to: