funny in 'test'

[Paul Lew]

 >   I had a user find a good (?) one the other day. She has a shell script
 > which did something like:
 > 	if [ "$1" = "x" ]; then do something; fi
 > 
 >   The value passed in as the first argument was "-d". Now, the construct
 > "-d =" ...

on BSD 4.* system, you will find out '[' is actually a link to
'/bin/test' and it is NOT part of the shell.  Test expect a lot of
flags; -r, -w, -f, -d, -s, -t -z -n, etc (see man page for test).  If
you need string comparison, always prefix by other characters like:

	if [ "_$1" = "_$x" ]; then ...

(system V sh has test built-in, probably interprete '[' to be 'test' like
BSD?)
-- 
Paul Lew			{oliveb,harvard,decvax}!gsg!lew	(UUCP)
General Systems Group, 5 Manor Parkway, Salem, NH 03079	(603) 893-1000