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"test -e" tests target of symlink



Hi,

test(1) says:

     -e file       True if file exists (regardless of type).

Consider:

$ ls -l /tmp/foo /tmp/bar
ls: /tmp/foo: No such file or directory
lrwx------  1 jschauma  wheel  8 May  4 11:35 /tmp/bar -> /tmp/foo
$ 

I would have expected "test -e /tmp/bar" to evaluate to true.  Instead,
it follows the symlink and evaluates to false:

$ test -e /tmp/bar
$ echo $?
1

IOW, it uses stat(2) instead of lstat(2):

        if (mode == FILSYM ? lstat(nm, &s) : stat(nm, &s))


(mode == FILSYM only if "-L" or "-h" was given)

Is this intentional, and if so, should this maybe be explicitly noted in
the manual page?

-Jan

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