🚀 go-pugleaf

dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann) writes:

>In article <Bx4Myp.Czr@unix.amherst.edu>, twpierce@unix (Tim Pierce) writes:
>>The command syntax really sucks, man.

>Are we talking about /bin/sh here?  Yah, the syntax of that is pretty
>bizzare.  What's worse, the man page (at least here) is really awful.
>Recently, I wanted to add a "case" to my .xsession file.  I could /not/
>figure out the syntax from the man page.  I finally gave up and asked.

>Is bash any better?

I love bash, but the man page isn't much friendlier.  Here's what the
manpage for sh (on a Sun) has to say about case: 

     case word in [pattern[ | pattern] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac
          A case command executes the list  associated  with  the
          first  pattern that matches word.  The form of the pat-
          terns is the same as that used for filename  generation
          (see  Filename Generation) except that a slash, a lead-
          ing dot, or a dot immediately following  a  slash  need
          not be matched explicitly.

And here's what the bash manpage says:

     case word in [ pattern [ | pattern ] ... ) list ;; ] ... esac
          A  case  command first expands word, and tries to match
          it against each pattern  in  turn.   When  a  match  is
          found,  the  corresponding list is executed.  After the
          first match, no subsequent matches are attempted.   The
          exit status is zero if no patterns are matches.  Other-
          wise, it is the exit status of the  last  command  exe-
          cuted in list.

Not much better.  I guess the single line specification is a bit
cryptic. 
--
Matt Ranney -  mjr@uther.calvin.edu
  "You know, I don't think theres a man, woman, or child alive today
   who doesn't enjoy a lovely beverage."  -DL