#
# Provides functions for checking and sorting the contents of arrays.
+
+#hmmm: these could all be beefed up by properly handling spaces in array
+# entries. use "${blah[@]}" rather than '*' for getting all elems.
+
+
# given the name of an array as the first parameter, this signals
# success (return value zero) if the second parameter is found in the
# array. failure (non-zero return) occurs if the item is missing.