Question about "[" file

[yagooapple]

I wonder if anyone know about this file in the /bin directory: [ -- it is just the left square bracket (do 'cd /bin' followed by 'ls'). I'm not sure if I should just delete it ... Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[miles01110]

Just leave it alone. Don't touch anything in the /bin folder for that matter.

 

[maflynn]

There's certain directories shouldn't be poking around and that's one of them. Any changes to some of these system directories will leave your mac unstable/unable to boot.

 

[-aggie-]

Here's a good rule to follow: If you aren't sure what something is, don't delete it, ESPECIALLY in system directories.

 

[yagooapple]

Here's a good rule to follow: If you aren't sure what something is, don't delete it, ESPECIALLY in system directories.

Thanks for all the replies. But a filename given by the left bracket really looks suspicious and weird? ... If anything comes up, would greatly appreciate to learn more about it. Again, thanks for the helps. I'll leave it for the time being ...

Y.A.

 

[spinnerlys]

Maybe this can help you:

http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/navigation/index.html

 

[GGJstudios]

But a filename given by the left bracket really looks suspicious and weird?

Not for system files, it doesn't.

 

[Hal Itosis]

I wonder if anyone know about this file in the /bin directory: [ -- it is just the left square bracket (do 'cd /bin' followed by 'ls').

[SIZE="2"]
yagooapple$ [color=blue]ls -li /bin/[[/color]
25857 -r-xr-xr-x  [COLOR="Magenta"]2[/COLOR] root  wheel  63184 May 18  2009 /bin/[

yagooapple$ [color=blue]find -f {,/usr}/{,s}bin /usr/libexec -inum 25857 -exec ls -li {} +[/color]
25857 -r-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel  63184 May 18  2009 /bin/[
25857 -r-xr-xr-x  2 root  wheel  63184 May 18  2009 /bin/[COLOR="Magenta"]test[/COLOR]

yagooapple$ [color=blue]file /bin/[[/color]
/bin/[: Mach-O universal binary with 3 architectures
/bin/[ (for architecture x86_64):	Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
/bin/[ (for architecture i386):		Mach-O executable i386
/bin/[ (for architecture ppc7400):	Mach-O executable ppc

yagooapple$ [color=blue]type [[/color]
[ is a shell builtin

yagooapple$ [color=blue]help [[/color]
[: [ arg... ]
    This is a synonym for the "test" builtin, but the last
    argument must be a literal `]', to match the opening `['.
[[ ... ]]: [[ expression ]]
    Returns a status of 0 or 1 depending on the evaluation of the conditional
    expression EXPRESSION.  Expressions are composed of the same primaries used
    by the `test' builtin, and may be combined using the following operators
    
    	( EXPRESSION )	Returns the value of EXPRESSION
    	! EXPRESSION	True if EXPRESSION is false; else false
    	EXPR1 && EXPR2	True if both EXPR1 and EXPR2 are true; else false
    	EXPR1 || EXPR2	True if either EXPR1 or EXPR2 is true; else false
    
    When the `==' and `!=' operators are used, the string to the right of the
    operator is used as a pattern and pattern matching is performed.  The
    && and || operators do not evaluate EXPR2 if EXPR1 is sufficient to
    determine the expression's value.
yagooapple$ [/SIZE]

I'm not sure if I should just delete it ... Any advice will be appreciated.

[SIZE="2"]
yagooapple$ [COLOR="Magenta"][SIZE="3"][[/SIZE][/COLOR] [COLOR="Blue"]"$unix_expert" = true ] && echo yes || echo no[/COLOR]
no[/SIZE]

 

[yagooapple]

Thanks soooo much. I feel much better now.