check out help test if you want to test fot both you can do [ -e file -o -h file ] || echo file not present.
AFAIK the current behaviour is intentional and is the most useful. cheers Gesendet: Freitag, 21. Juni 2013 um 15:43 Uhr Von: "Mark Young" <marky1...@gmail.com> An: bug-bash@gnu.org Betreff: How to test if a link exists Hi, I stumbled into discovering that the -e test for a file does not report the file as existing if the file is a dead symbolic link. This seems wrong to me. Here's some test code:- (WARNING it includes rm -f a b) #!/bin/bash bash --version echo "" rm -f a b ln -s b a [ -a a ] && echo "1. (test -a) File a exists, it's a dead link" [ -e a ] && echo "1. (test -e) File a exists, it's a dead link" [ -f a ] && echo "1. (test -f) File a exists, it's a dead link" touch b [ -a a ] && echo "2. (test -a) File a exists, it points to b" [ -e a ] && echo "2. (test -e) File a exists, it points to b" [ -f a ] && echo "2. (test -f) File a exists, it points to b" When run on my CentOS v5.9 system I get the following $ ./test GNU bash, version 3.2.25(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 2. (test -a) File a exists, it points to b 2. (test -e) File a exists, it points to b 2. (test -f) File a exists, it points to b When run on Cygwin I also get basically the same $ ./test GNU bash, version 4.1.10(4)-release (i686-pc-cygwin) Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <[1]http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 2. (test -a) File a exists, it points to b 2. (test -e) File a exists, it points to b 2. (test -f) File a exists, it points to b My feeling is that this is wrong and that I should be told that a exists even though b doesn't. File 'a' does exist it is a dead symbolic link. So it prevents me for instance creating a symbolic link:- E.g. $ ln -s c a $ ls -l a b c ls: b: No such file or directory ls: c: No such file or directory lrwxrwxrwx 1 marky tools 1 Jun 21 14:41 a -> b Is this an error in bash? What test should I use to decide if a file exists (including dead symbolic links)? Cheers, Mark References 1. http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
