On Thu, 18 Feb 2010, Eric Blake wrote: > According to Chris F.A. Johnson on 2/18/2010 6:20 AM: > > On Thu, 18 Feb 2010, jida...@jidanni.org wrote: > > > >> $ expr 3.1 + 3 > >> expr: non-numeric argument <---say "non integer argument" > >> $ expr 3.1 + 3b > >> expr: non-numeric argument > > > > The expr command's arithmetic only works with integers. > > But that's not his point. The point is that 3.1 is numeric, so the error > could be fine-tuned to state that expr expects integers to make it clear > that numeric but non-integer is the reason for the failure.
My apologies; I should have read it more closely. That'll teach me to post early in the morning! > And I'm inclined to agree. I see nothing in POSIX that requires the > current error string, or forbids a more specific error string. I agree. -- Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfajohnson.com> =================================================================== Author: Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress) Pro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell (2009, Apress)
