[R & Unix ..] system("test",...) gives funny results...

[in an attempt to provide 

	  system.test <- 
		function(...) { system(paste("test", ...)) == 0 }
and then 
	  file.exists <- 
		function(file){sapply(file, function(f)system.test("-e", f))} 
 
  (which would provide S-plus [>= 4.x] compatibility)
]

Look at this -- ``the horror'' to me :

(system("test -e /tmp"))

sh: test: argument expected
[1] 256

Similar funny behavior  (in tcsh; $version gives the tcsh version)

In the shell

   sophie{maechler}639> echo $version
   tcsh 6.04.00 (Cornell) 93/07/03 (sun4) options 8b,nls,dl,al

In R :

   > (system("echo $version"))

   [1] 0

   > {system("echo $version > /tmp/qq"); scan("/tmp/qq",what="")}

   Read 0 items
   character(0)

   >

 {system("echo $USER > /tmp/qq"); scan("/tmp/qq",what="")}