Re: bash: how to check if first character of string is "/"?

• To: For users of Fedora <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
• Subject: Re: bash: how to check if first character of string is "/"?
• From: Andy Green <andy@xxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:34:47 +0100
• In-reply-to: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0710080215520.21658@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• References: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0710080215520.21658@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Reply-to: For users of Fedora <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
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Somebody in the thread at some point said:
>   it's late so i'm sure i'm just being dense in not knowing this, but
> is there a simpler way to check if the first character of a string is
> a "/" rather than the cumbersome:
> 
>   if [ "x${VAR##/*}" = "x" ] ; then ...
> 
> surely there must be *something* that doesn't look quite so grotesque.

How about

if [ "${VAR:0:1}" = "/" ] ; then

-Andy

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