Re: Bourne sh redirection, a loop variable, and ':'

[Paolo Bonzini]

Eric Blake wrote:
> According to Ralf Wildenhues on 9/13/2008 1:27 AM:
>>> #  for i in 1 2 3 ; do : >x$i ; sleep 60 ; done ; date ; ls -l x*
>>> Wednesday, September  3, 2008  1:25:25 PM PDT
>>> -rw-r--r--   1 root     root           0 Sep  3 13:22 x1
>>>
>>> it seems that the no-op is removed from the loop after the first iteration.
>>> I guessed as much, but this makes it clearer.  Pretty weird. - Bruce
>> Indeed.  OK to install this patch to describe the issue?
> 
> Yes, please apply.

What about suggesting "touch" instead?  Can we assume its presence?

Paolo