Re: shell "if"

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

James Henstridge <james daa com au> writes:

> Morten Welinder wrote:
> 
> >Someone has started using a bash incompatibility a lot in gnome2
> >sources.  This is not good.  Here's a line (from atk's configure,
> >I think -- it's all over).
> >
> >     if ! $PKG_CONFIG --atleast-pkgconfig-version 0.7.0; then
> >
> >The *proper* meaning of that is to execute the command "!" with
> >three arguments, but bash takes in upon itself to define it as
> >the negation of the $PKG_CONFIG call with two arguments.  (This
> >was probably meant as an extension of the language, but clearly
> >isn't.)
> >
> >Can we please stop using non-standard shell stuff?
> >
> The following should be a safe alternative:
>   $PKG_CONFIG --atleast-pkgconfig-version 0.7.0
>   if test $? -ne 0; then
>     ...

I think the traditional

 if $PKG_CONFIG --atleast-pkgconfig-version 0.7.0 ; then : ; else
   do something
 fi

Is probably a little nicer.

Regards,
                                        Owen