[: too many arguments

[Marcus Schuetz]

Harry Putnam wrote:
> Marcus Schuetz <biped at comcast.net> writes:
> 
> 
>>Recently I noticed getting the message "[: too many arguments" when I
>>use a terminal under gnome (gnome-terminal or aterm) when using
>>external (not shell) commands (less, etc.). I tried several shells
>>(bash, tcsh, zsh) and I get this with all of them. I had no luck
>>tracking down the origin of this message. Anybody else seeing this?
>>How about a solution?
> 
> 
> It wasn't clear to me what you mean by `when I use'.  Do you mean when
> you start a terminal?
> 
> Can you explain exaclty what you do that brings on the error message please?
> 
> 
It's the first output I see when starting a terminal may it be 
gnome-terminal, xterm or aterm. I also see it whenever I call less:

[: too many arguments
marcus has logged on :0 from local.
root has logged on pts/0 from :0.0.
marcus has logged on pts/1 from :0.0.
[(20:18) :: HAL9001 :: ~]>  less blah.txt
[: too many arguments
blah.txt: No such file or directory
Exit 1
[(20:18) :: HAL9001 :: ~]>

Marcus