On Jun 28, 2006, at 10:53 AM, Mike Austin wrote:

> Curt Duncan Taylor wrote:
>> Here I am pulling my hair out because I can't find the proper  
>> suntax to write an 'if' statement that says "if the file ~HOME 
>> \test.lis exist, then delete it."
>> Where do I find documentation for the proper version of Unix  
>> scripting that is being used on Girrafe at UVM?
>
> There are several shell options available on giraffe.  What shell  
> were you trying to use?
>
> If you use bash, syntax like:
>
>
> #!/bin/bash

and if you use #!/bin/tcsh or #!/bin/csh or if you use #!/bin/sh , it  
all might be different.

So, you read the documentation, which amounts to typing

	man bash

which displays the bash manual pages. Try finding conditional syntax  
there -- ouch

My advice: shell scripts are whack. Use perl. Find local  
documentation (dated, but still usable) at http://www.uvm.edu/perl5 .

Now we have

#!/usr/bin/perl

$TESTFILE=$ENV{'HOME'}."/test.lis/";

if (-e $TESTFILE) {
         unlink $TESTFILE;
} else {
         print "$TESTFILE does not exist\n"
}

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