Jeff King <peff@xxxxxxxx> writes: > On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 12:52:44PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > >> I _think_ "test -z" should succeed according to POSIX, because >> >> (1) it is not "test -z string" because it lacks string, >> >> (2) it is not any of the other "test -<option> thing" because -z, >> and >> >> (3) the only thing it matches in the supported form of "test" is >> "test <string>" that tests if the <string> is not the null >> string, and "-z" indeed is not the null string. >> >> For the same reason, "test -n" succeeds. > > Yeah, I think you're right; POSIX is pretty clear that this falls under > case 3. So that means "test -z" quietly does what we want. But it means > that "test -n" does the _opposite_ of what we want. ;-) > And sadly, > > git grep 'test -n [^"]' > > is not empty. Are you doing an audit? Otherwise I'm interested in taking a brief look. >> But working around older/broken shells is easy and the resulting >> script it more readable, so let's take this. It makes the resulting >> code easier to understand even when we know we run it under POSIX >> shell. > > Yep. The POSIX-explanation of what is going on might be worth putting in > the commit message for the "-z" case (i.e., it should work, but the > "why" is subtle). Perhaps. A small consolation for ksh fans around is that ksh93 seems to get this case right ;-) -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html