On Monday 18 April 2016 09:49:29 David Wright wrote: > On Sun 17 Apr 2016 at 00:41:03 (-0400), Gene Heskett wrote: > > On Saturday 16 April 2016 22:18:34 David Wright wrote: > > > On Sat 16 Apr 2016 at 19:06:42 (-0400), Gene Heskett wrote: > > > > On Saturday 16 April 2016 14:02:16 Thomas Schmitt wrote: > > > > > Gene Heskett wrote: > > > > > > There are too many places where a conditional would be > > > > > > needed > > > > > > > > > > The classic way is to use only gestures which are supported by > > > > > the Bourne shell and to avoid certain peculiarities of some > > > > > shells. In ./configure scripts of source packages one can see > > > > > gestures like > > > > > > > > > > if test "x${InMail}" = xgene > > > > > > > > > > which avoids to compare empty variable content. > > > > > > > > In normal everyday operation, the variable ${InMail} will not be > > > > empty. > > > > > > That may or may not be a useful observation. However, sod's law > > > dictates that when it *is* empty, it'll be in five years time when > > > you've forgotten how and why you converted your script, and you > > > desparately need it to work _now_. > > > > Each new incoming email is another pass thru the loop. There are 3 > > possible names for the mailfile itself as procmail determines that. > > Which nicely illustrates the point of defensive programming. > It's not *your* script that will necessarily make the first mistake, > but you don't want procmail's unexpected input to derail your script > and produce a cascade of errors. Let's face it, shell error messages > are not the easiest to decode: that was the reason for your OP. > > And pointing out how your procmail system can't get it wrong is no > defence. If you're using an unsafe test in one place, it's likely > there are other ones in your scripts (assuming this isn't the only > script you have). > > Cheers, > David.
Observant, David. Its not the only one but the others are cron jobs, and re-arranging the 2>&1 to be the last argument has truly shut this one up. 18+ hours and a hundred or more incoming emails later, and I am still looking at the shell prompt in the window I restarted it in. Life is good, its truly backgrounded for good. Thank you. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>