Empty Directory? (Was: Picking a character from a word)

[Root Boy Jim]

   From: Mario Dorion <mdorion at cmtl01.uucp>

   In article <13241 at brl-adm.ARPA>, rbj at icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes:
   > 	   set nonomatch
   > 	   if ( ! -e $dir/* ) echo $dir is empty.
   > 
   > Didn't work under 4.3 BSD. How about a two-step solution?
   > 
   > 	ls -A $dir > /tmp/$$
   > 	if ( -z /tmp/$$ ) echo directory empty

   Wouldn't
	   if [ `ls -a $dir | wc -w` -eq 2 ]  \* for . and .. *\
	   then echo $dir is empty
	   fi
   work ?????

I suppose.

   BTW: what does "set nonomatch" do ???

I assume you must be running TPC UNIX, or you would have read the csh manual.
Anyway, "mkdir x; cd x; set nonomatch; echo qaz*" echo's 'qaz*'. The
variable `nonomatch' allows the echo to succeed instead of producing an
error. Personally, I dislike both the name and the implementation. I would
have called the variable `nullmatch' and returned the empty string.

Now for some head scratching, what does `unset nonomatch' mean? :-)

	Mario Dorion              | ...!{rutgers,uunet,ihnp4}!     
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	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj at icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
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