[javadesigner]

Folks,

This is driving me crazy.

First up, my linux box:

root@monster:# echo $BASH_VERSION
2.05.0(1)-release

root@monster:# ls $(which javac)
/usr/local/packages/jdk/bin/javac

Note carefully, now I want to see all
entries in the same directory where
javac resides:

root@monster:# ls $(dirname $(which javac))
ControlPanel jar javadoc kinit policytool servertool
HtmlConverter jarsigner javah klist rmic tnameserv
appletviewer java javap ktab rmid
extcheck java-rmi.cgi jdb native2ascii rmiregistry
idlj javac keytool orbd serialver


Now on Mac OSX:

bash-2.05a# echo $BASH_VERSION
2.05a.0(1)-release

bash-2.05a# ls $(which javac)
/usr/bin/javac

Note, very carefully, /usr/bin/javac is actually a link:

bash-2.05a# ls -l $(which javac)
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 58 Jul 8 19:29 /usr/bin/javac -> /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Commands/javac

Now suppose I want to see other files in the same directory as where /usr/bin/javac points to.

Try 1)
bash-2.05a# ls $(dirname $(which javac))

Well, this gives me the files in
/usr/bin and not:
/System/Library../Commands

Try 2)
After reading the ls man page, it seems
that I have to specify the -L flag
to force 'ls' to follow the link.

---quote from 'man ls'--

-L If argument is a symbolic link,
list the file or directory the
link references rather than the
link itself.
-----end quote---------

Well, let's try this:

bash-2.05a# ls -L $(which javac)
/usr/bin/javac

Dammit. This really sucks. The "-L"
flag of 'ls' does not work. This means
I cannot do on my OSX box what I can
easily do on my linux box. So for
example, the following does NOT work:

bash-2.05a#
ls $(dirname $(ls -L $(which javac)))

(still shows me files in /usr/bin)

Any suggestions or comments (of course
there are ways around this, whereby
I can simply do "ls /Library/Java/Home"
but that's a hack. The correct elegant
way to do this is to use "which" but
that doesn't work..

Best regards,

--j

[javadesigner]

Ok. Followup to my own post earlier.

Turns out that "ls -L" is _not_ broken on OSX.

To wit, if I do on my linux box:

root@monster:/tmp# ln -s $(which java) j
root@monster:/tmp# ls -L j
j
root@monster:/tmp#

This means that ls -L does not follow the link even on linux. I guess I am confused about what it does. The original questions still stands: how do I list all files in the same directory as "java" using $(which java) to find the java executable ?

--j

[Gary Kerbaugh]

   A good man page (I have seen them) correctly explains that -L causes ls to provide the information for target of a symlink but not the name. Every system does have a mechanism for displaying the target but it varies from system to system. On OpenBSD and MacOS X the utility is readlink. Thus what you want can be accomplished in a Bourne type shell with:

ls $(dirname $(readlink $(which java)))

[utidjian]

Originally posted by javadesigner:
Ok. Followup to my own post earlier.

Turns out that "ls -L" is _not_ broken on OSX.

To wit, if I do on my linux box:

root@monster:/tmp# ln -s $(which java) j
root@monster:/tmp# ls -L j
j
root@monster:/tmp#

This means that ls -L does not follow the link even on linux. I guess I am confused about what it does. The original questions still stands: how do I list all files in the same directory as "java" using $(which java) to find the java executable ?

--j

Didn't you mean to do?:

root@monster:/tmp# ln -s $(dirname $(which java)) j

In which case an:

root@monster:/tmp# ls -L j

will return the contents of the directory that java resides in.

[javadesigner]

Didn't you mean to do?:

root@monster:/tmp# ln -s $(dirname $(which java)) j

In which case an:

root@monster:/tmp# ls -L j

will return the contents of the directory that java resides in.

Yup, good catch. That does work on linux. But it doesn't work on mac osx though...

[javadesigner]

I don't get.


First:
root@hmac:/tmp# ls -l /usr/bin/java
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 57 Jul 15 12:40
/usr/bin/java ->
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Commands/java

Second:
root@hmac:/tmp# ls -L /usr/bin/java
/usr/bin/java


from ls man page (manual page on Mac OS X 10.2):
-------
-L If argument is a symbolic link, list the file or directory the
link references rather than the link itself.
------

I don't get it. ls -L should have shown the target (when I
typed the second command) but it doesn't.