Re: Do test-path_is_{file,dir,exists} make sense anymore with -x?

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Feb 26, 2019, 19:58 UTC
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.1902262055260.41@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet>
In-Reply-To: <20190226173542.GC19606@sigill.intra.peff.net>

Hi,

On Tue, 26 Feb 2019, Jeff King wrote:

> I had a vague notion that there was some reason (portability?) that we
> preferred to have the wrappers. But as your patch shows, they really are
> just calling "test" and nothing else.

Let's also not forget about the fact that `test -f` is actually not all that intuitive an interface. Whereas even somebody without training in software development (let alone Unix shell scripting) understands the meaning of

	test_path_is_file this-file.txt

And even for a trained eye, the trace of `test -f` is sometimes hard to read, as you do *not* see the exit code in the trace, so you have to guess from circumstantial evidence whether it failed or succeeded.

Ciao, Dscho