bash, issue on if condition

Question

I'm trying to follow these explanations on if condition: http://linuxconfig.org/bash-printf-syntax-basics-with-examples

My code is

#!/bin/bash

result="test"
if [$result = "test"];
then printf "ok"
fi

But I have the following error: line 4: [test: command not found

Debug your syntax with [ShellCheck](http://www.shellcheck.net/). — Todd A. Jacobs, Sep 28 '15 at 04:29

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 28 '15 at 03:50

1

[ is a command. There must be spaces between not only it and its first argument, but between every argument.

answered Sep 28 '15 at 03:50

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

740,318
145
1,296
1,325

additionally requires the space before `]` for same reason – amdixon Sep 28 '15 at 03:54
Right, because `]` is an argument. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Sep 28 '15 at 03:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 28 '15 at 04:09

In bash (and also POSIX shells), [ is equivalent to test command, except that it requires ] as the last argument. You need to separate command and its arguments for the shell doing token recognition correctly.

In your case, bash think [test is a command instead of command [ with argument test. You need:

#!/bin/bash

result="test"
if [ "$result" = "test" ]; then
  printf "ok"
fi

(Note that you need to quote variables to prevent split+glob operators on them)

bash, issue on if condition

2 Answers2