[PLUG] Bash question

Even after checking the "learning bash" book and searching, I'm having a little trouble explaining some bash functioning. I'm trying to process some command output, making an array of its output lines. I was trying to check for the "no output" case (which goes right back to a prompt) by interrogating the final array length. But even with no command output, I get a length of 1. Could someone explain this? Thanks.

Script:

#!/bin/bash

# DTD specifies 0 or 1 <rules>, so check if any before processing.
echo "Rules content:"
xmlpathval.py ~/program1/sample2.xml "/sync/rules[1]/text()" |
while IFS= read -r line; do
        echo "-->'$line'"
done
echo "IFS='$IFS'"

rulesInfo=$(xmlpathval.py ~/program1/sample2.xml "/sync/rules[1]/text()")       <<<<<<< raw output shown below
if [[ -z $rulesInfo ]]; then
        echo "No rules found."
fi
echo "rulesInfo='$rulesInfo'"

IFS=
unset rulesArray
readarray -t rulesArray <<< "$rulesInfo"
echo "length=${#rulesArray[@]}"
if [[ ${#rulesArray[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
        echo "empty"
else
        echo "not empty"
fi
echo "rulesArray(single echo)=${rulesArray[@]}"
echo rulesArray from loop=
for element in "${rulesArray[@]}"
        do
                echo "'$element'"
        done

Input:

gkd@sisko:~/program1$ xmlpathval.py sample2.xml "/sync/rules[1]/text()"
gkd@sisko:~/program1$ echo $?
0

Results:

gkd@sisko:~/scripts$ ./test.sh
Rules content:
IFS='
'
No rules found.
rulesInfo=''
length=1
not empty
rulesArray(single echo)=
rulesArray from loop=
''
gkd@sisko:~/scripts$

___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug