Todd Troxell wrote: > I see your point. The config is not really essential. > > What do you think about this: > > if [ -f $CONFFILE -a -r $CONFFILE]; then
The problem is still that if CONFFILE is somehow mistyped, it still fails silently even if the fragment fixes the error I had with permissions. For my view the correct operation would be following: 1) if CONFFILE (from command line) is set, use it. If it does not exists or is unreadable, issue an error 2) if CONFFILE is not set, but the default CONFFILE exists AND is readable use it 3) if default CONFFILE exists, but is unreadable, provide an error 4) if default CONFFILE does not exists, use defauls To have 1), command line argument processing should be modified as below case "$opt" in c) debug "Setting CONFFILE to $OPTARG" CONFFILE="$OPTARG" if [ ! -r $CONFFILE ]; then error "Config file $CONFFILE unreadable or does not exists" fi ;; For 2) and 4), the existing condition is ok, but needs additional condition for 3). if [ -r $CONFFILE ]; then . $CONFFILE elif [ -f $CONFFILE ]; then # this provides 3) error "Config file $CONFFILE unreadable" fi (sorry, if line wrap is problem). -- Markus Peuhkuri | http://www.iki.fi/puhuri/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]