Dave & John, thank you both. I think you are both right that my solution is
[ -a file -o -h file ] || echo "ok to create file" However I personally feel that there ought be a simple test for this situation, there are still a few spare letters that could be used for the test ;) I'm willing to bet there is plenty of code out there that tries to decide whether it is safe to create a file and would fall foul of an errant dead symbolic link. A little off topic but are -a and -e identical? Cheers, mark
