Re: [bash 4] 'test -v 1' is never true

[Alejandro Colomar]

Hi Branden!

On 11/25/22 22:40, G. Branden Robinson wrote:

Hi Alex,

At 2022-11-25T22:02:46+0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote:

I wrote a script, and am trying it on many systems.  On RHEL8, which
has bash 4, it didn't work.  I could reduce the problem to the
following command, which never returns true:

     test -v 1;

In Debian Sid, where I develop, and where I have bash 5, that works
fine, and is true if the function or script in which it is has any
arguments.  On zsh(1) it also works fine.

Is this a known bug in bash?
The exact version where I can reproduce it is 4.4.20(1)-release
(x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu).

I don't think it is a bug.  It is unspecified behavior according to
POSIX.

"-v" is not an operator according to POSIX,

Yeah, I know.  I tried dash(1), which at least gives some warning:

    $ cat bug.sh
    #!/bin/bash

    echo $1;

    test -v 1 \
    && echo 'arguments';

    $ dash bug.sh

    bug.sh: 5: test: -v: unexpected operator

and I don't recall seeing it
in any shell.  It is therefore interpreted as a string argument.

But `-v` is a specified option of bash(1) (and also, at least, zsh(1)):

    $ help test | grep '\-v'
          -v VAR         True if the shell variable VAR is set.

I find it very useful, since I use `set -Eeufo pipefail` in my scripts, to simplify error handling. When I want to use a variable that might be undefined, I first check if it exists.

   The algorithm for determining the precedence of the operators and the
   return value that shall be generated is based on the number of
   arguments presented to test. (However, when using the "[...]" form,
   the right-bracket final argument shall not be counted in this
   algorithm.)

   In the following list, $1, $2, $3, and $4 represent the arguments
   presented to test:

   0 arguments:
       Exit false (1).
   1 argument:
       Exit true (0) if $1 is not null; otherwise, exit false.
   2 arguments:

           If $1 is '!', exit true if $2 is null, false if $2 is not
           null.

           If $1 is a unary primary, exit true if the unary test is true,
           false if the unary test is false.

           Otherwise, produce unspecified results.

https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695299/utilities/test.html

Regards,
Branden

Cheers,

Alex

--
<http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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