Hi, Steve Litt <sl...@troubleshooters.com> writes:
> Benjamin Riefenstahl said on Thu, 13 Jan 2022 18:19:23 +0100 > >>Hi Steve, >> >>Steve Litt writes: >>> [slitt@mydesk ~]$ "cat -n" /etc/fstab | cut -b 1-20 | head -n5 >>> bash: cat -n: command not found >>> [slitt@mydesk ~]$ "cat -n /etc/fstab" | cut -b 1-20 | head -n5 >>> bash: cat -n /etc/fstab: No such file or directory >>> [slitt@mydesk ~]$ >> >>Different code paths within Bash. When there is a "/" in the command >>name, that is a file that has to exist by that exact name (the file >>name can be relative, though). When there is no "/", then and only >>then the command is searched along $PATH, and if it is not found >>there, the error message is different from the other case. > > This is true, but not the explanation for this particular behavior, as > follows: > > [slitt@mydesk ~]$ /usr/bin/cat -n /etc/fstab | cut -b 1-20 | head -n5 Here your shell look for a file called "cat" i /usr/bin. > 1 UUID=730eaf92 > 2 UUID=41abb5fd > 3 UUID=96cfdfb3 > 4 UUID=6F66-BF7 > 5 tmpfs /tmp tm > [slitt@mydesk ~]$ "/usr/bin/cat -n" /etc/fstab | cut -b 1-20 | head -n5 Here your shell looks for a file called "cat -n" in /usr/bin. > bash: /usr/bin/cat -n: No such file or directory > [slitt@mydesk ~]$ "/usr/bin/cat -n /etc/fstab" | cut -b 1-20 | head -n5 Here your shell looks for a file called "fstab" in a directory called "etc" in a directory called "cat -n " in /usr/bin. > bash: /usr/bin/cat -n /etc/fstab: No such file or directory Given that, I believe Benjamini's explanation still holds. Hope this helps, -- Olaf Meeuwissen FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27 GnuPG key: F84A2DD9/B3C0 2F47 EA19 64F4 9F13 F43E B8A4 A88A F84A 2DD9 Support Free Software https://my.fsf.org/donate Join the Free Software Foundation https://my.fsf.org/join _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng