Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!rutgers!sunybcs!boulder!spot!wu From: wu@spot.Colorado.EDU (WU SHI-KUEI) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: what's the use of "{ list }" in /bin/sh? Message-ID: <6954@sigi.Colorado.EDU> Date: 6 Jul 88 14:43:53 GMT References: <23590@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> Sender: news@sigi.Colorado.EDU Reply-To: wu@spot.Colorado.EDU (WU SHI-KUEI) Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Lines: 23 In article <23590@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Mike Khaw) writes: >"man sh" (on ultrix) says: > > { list } > The list is simply executed > >Under what circumstances is this useful (i.e., why whould one want to >put braces around a list of commands)? [ -r "$filename" ] || { echo "Cannot open $filename for reading" ; exit 1 } is another way of writing if [ -r "$filename" then echo "Cannot open $filename for reading" exit 1 fi The braces are required so that both commands are executed as if one. Carl Brandauer ihnp4!stcvax!nbires!bdaemon!carl