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From: fl...@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.os.linux.debian,alt.os.linux.slackware
Subject: Re: HOW2 find VT of an app. ?
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Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2012 04:26:06 -0800
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"Chris F.A. Johnson" <cfajohn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 2012-11-01, Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
>> "Chris F.A. Johnson" <cfajohn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> At this point I don't see any worthwhile way of avoiding
>>>> /bin/ls.
>>>
>>>  You can avoid wc as well as ls (assuming bash):
>>>
>>>lc()
>>>{
>>>    printf "Count: "
>>>    shopt -s nullglob
>>>    case $* in
>>>      \* | "" ) set -- * ;;
>>>      *) set -- "$@" ;;
>>>    esac
>>>    printf "%d\n" "$#"
>>>}
>>
>> Same problem with the parameter substitution though, with the
>> result that it returns 1 for an empty directory.
>
>   It returns 0 in an empty directory
>   (that's what 'shopt -s nullglob' is for).

It does work as expected.  I must not have had it defined when I
thought it was before.

This one looks by far better than the methods I came up with.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                      fl...@apaflo.com