What happened?

hi again,

[[ $a == (e|b) ]]

this breaks the rest of the file, apparently because it thinks the e| is an unterminated e glob qualifier. there are a few issues with this:

• glob qualifiers must be preceded by a pattern, so a stand-alone (...) shouldn't be interpreted as one

• bare glob qualifiers -- the (...) form rather than the (#q...) one -- can't contain |, so even if it was preceded by a pattern it shouldn't be interpreted as one

• bare glob qualifiers (even legal ones) can't appear inside a [[ condition

• extended glob qualifiers (#q...) can appear inside a [[ condition, but not on the right-hand side of a pattern-matching expression like a == b or a != b. i think they can appear anywhere else in one

(this is generally covered under Glob Qualifiers, but lmk if i can improve it, short of a formal grammar lol)

so

echo (e::)    # not globqual (no preceding pattern)
echo (#qe::)  # not globqual (no preceding pattern)
echo x(e||)   # not globqual (bare globqual may not contain '|')
echo x(e::)   # is  globqual
echo x(#qe::) # is  globqual
echo x(#qe||) # is  globqual

[[ $a == x(.) ]] # not globqual (bare globqual not valid in [[ ... ]])
[[ x(.) == $a ]] # not globqual (bare globqual not valid in [[ ... ]])

[[ $a == x(#q.) ]] # not globqual (globqual not valid on rhs of [[ a == b ]])
[[ x(#q.) == $a ]] # is  globqual

thanks again for your work on this