[TUHS] sh: cmd | >file

markus schnalke meillo at marmaro.de
Sun Jan 5 08:44:35 AEST 2020


Hoi.

[2020-01-04 23:19] Terry Jones <terry at jon.es>
>
> Was : actually designed for commenting?

Hardly, because who would want comments to have side effects:

	: don't do this

Or this:

	: ignored; echo executed

Or this dangerously ``outcommented'' line:

	: test ... && rm file

!

Using : for comments is only possible as the command does nothing
and ignores its arguments ... but the shell parses the arguments
as for every other command ... and executes stuff in the line that
are no arguments to :.

In case of #, the rest of the line is truly ignored, as comments
should be like.


> but : is much nicer because you can "comment" out a
> single command in (e.g.) an if/then and it remains syntactically valid and
> executable. I find it very elegant.

Can you please give an example for me to understand what you mean
by that?


meillo


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