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-rw-r--r--bash.html.markdown13
1 files changed, 11 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/bash.html.markdown b/bash.html.markdown
index 191f916a..211d2944 100644
--- a/bash.html.markdown
+++ b/bash.html.markdown
@@ -90,17 +90,26 @@ else
echo "Your name is your username"
fi
+# NOTE: if $Name is empty, bash sees the above condition as:
+if [ -ne $USER ]
+# which is invalid syntax
+# so the "safe" way to use potentially empty variables in bash is:
+if [ "$Name" -ne $USER ] ...
+# which, when $Name is empty, is seen by bash as:
+if [ "" -ne $USER ] ...
+# which works as expected
+
# There is also conditional execution
echo "Always executed" || echo "Only executed if first command fails"
echo "Always executed" && echo "Only executed if first command does NOT fail"
# To use && and || with if statements, you need multiple pairs of square brackets:
-if [ $Name == "Steve" ] && [ $Age -eq 15 ]
+if [ "$Name" == "Steve" ] && [ "$Age" -eq 15 ]
then
echo "This will run if $Name is Steve AND $Age is 15."
fi
-if [ $Name == "Daniya" ] || [ $Name == "Zach" ]
+if [ "$Name" == "Daniya" ] || [ "$Name" == "Zach" ]
then
echo "This will run if $Name is Daniya OR Zach."
fi