In this context, "list" represents a syntactic element rather than a literal variable. If you read the section above, titled "Lists", you'll see:
Lists A list is a sequence of one or more pipelines separated by one of the operators ;, &, &&, or ⎪⎪, and optionally terminated by one of ;, &, or <newline>. On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 4:23 PM, jeffrey.hae...@gmail.com <jeffrey.hae...@gmail.com> wrote: > Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]: > Machine: i686 > OS: linux-gnu > Compiler: gcc > Compilation CFLAGS: -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' > -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu' > -DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale' -DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL > -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I../bash -I../bash/include -I../bash/lib -g -O2 > -Wall > uname output: Linux jsh-green-netbook 2.6.35-24-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Thu > Dec 2 01:41:57 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux > Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu > > Bash Version: 4.1 > Patch Level: 5 > Release Status: release > > Description: > Documentation nit: "list" overloaded in while/until description. > > Repeat-By: > > Here's the bash(1) man page section for while/until: > > while list; do list; done > until list; do list; done > The while command continuously executes the do list as long as the > last command in list > returns an exit status of zero. The until command is identical to > the while command, > except that the test is negated; the do list is executed as long as > the last command in > list returns a non-zero exit status. The exit status of the while and > until commands is > the exit status of the last do list command executed, or zero if none > was executed. > > > Fix: > > If you changed them to something like this: > > while listA; do listB; done > until listA; do listB; done > The while command continuously executes listB as long as the last > command in listA > returns an exit status of zero. The until command is identical to > the while command, > except that the test is negated; listB is executed as long as the last > command in > listA returns a non-zero exit status. The exit status of the while > and until commands is > the exit status of the last command executed in listB, or zero if none > was executed. > > I think they'd be easier to read. > > -- > Jeffrey Haemer <jeffrey.hae...@gmail.com> > 720-837-8908 [cell], http://seejeffrun.blogspot.com [blog], > http://www.youtube.com/user/goyishekop [vlog] > פרייהייט? דאס איז יאַנג דינען וואָרט. > * > * >