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212 lines
9.1 KiB
Markdown
212 lines
9.1 KiB
Markdown
# The conditional expression
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## Synopsis
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[[ <EXPRESSION> ]]
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## Description
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The conditional expression is meant as the modern variant of the
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[classic test command](../../commands/classictest.md). Since it is **not** a
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normal command, Bash doesn't need to apply the normal commandline
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parsing rules like recognizing `&&` as [command
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list](../../syntax/basicgrammar.md#lists) operator.
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The testing features basically are the same (see the lists for [classic
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test command](../../commands/classictest.md)), with some additions and
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extensions.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Operator Description
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-------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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`( <EXPRESSION> )` Used to group expressions, to influence precedence of operators
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`<EXPRESSION1> && <EXPRESSION2>` `TRUE` if `<EXPRESSION1>`**and**`<EXPRESSION2>` are `TRUE` (do **not** use `-a`!)
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`<EXPRESSION1> || <EXPRESSION2>` `TRUE` if `<EXPRESSION1>`**or**`<EXPRESSION2>` is `TRUE` (do **not** use `-o`!)
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`<STRING> == <PATTERN>` `<STRING>` is checked against the pattern `<PATTERN>` - `TRUE` on a match\
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*But note¹, quoting the pattern forces a literal comparison.*
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`<STRING> = <PATTERN>` equivalent to the `==` operator
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`<STRING> != <PATTERN>` `<STRING>` is checked against the pattern `<PATTERN>` - `TRUE` on **no match**
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`<STRING> =~ <ERE>` `<STRING>` is checked against the [extended regular expression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression#POSIX_extended) `<ERE>` - `TRUE` on a match
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See the [classic test operators](../../commands/classictest.md#file_tests) Do **not** use the `test`-typical operators `-a` and `-o` for AND and OR.
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See also [arithmetic comparisons](../../syntax/arith_expr.md#comparisons) Using `(( <EXPRESSION> ))`, the [arithmetic expression compound command](../../syntax/ccmd/arithmetic_eval.md)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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When the `==` and `!=` operators are used, the string to the right of
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the operator is considered a pattern and matched according to the rules
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of [Pattern Matching](../../syntax/pattern.md). If the shell option
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`nocasematch` is enabled, the match is performed without regard to the
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case of alphabetic characters.
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¹Any part of the pattern may be quoted to force it to be matched as a
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literal string.
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When the operators `<` and `>` are used (string collation order), the
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test happens using the current locale when the `compat` level is greater
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than \"40\".
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Operator precedence (highest => lowest):
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- `( <EXPRESSION> )`
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- `! <EXPRESSION>`
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- `<EXPRESSION1> && <EXPRESSION2>`
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- `<EXPRESSION1> || <EXPRESSION2>`
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Do **not** use the `test`-typical operators `-a` and `-o` for AND and
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OR, they are not known to the conditional expression. Instead, use the
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operators `&&` and `||`.
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### Word splitting
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[Word splitting](../../syntax/expansion/wordsplit.md) and [pathname
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expansion](../../syntax/expansion/globs.md) are not performed in the expression
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you give. That means, a variable containing spaces can be used without
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quoting:
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sentence="Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send"
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checkme="Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send"
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if [[ $sentence == $checkme ]]; then
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echo "Matched...!"
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else
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echo "Sorry, no match :-("
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fi
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Compare that to the [classic test command](../../commands/classictest.md), where
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word splitting is done (because it's a normal command, not something
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special):
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sentence="Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send"
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checkme="Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send"
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if [ "$sentence" == "$checkme" ]; then
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echo "Matched...!"
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else
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echo "Sorry, no match :-("
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fi
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You need to quote that variable reference in the classic test command,
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since (due to the spaces) the word splitting will break it otherwise!
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### Regular Expression Matching
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Using the operator `=~`, the left hand side operand is matched against
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the **extended regular expression (ERE)** on the right hand side.
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This is consistent with matching against patterns: Every quoted part of
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the regular expression is taken literally, even if it contains regular
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expression special characters.
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Best practise is to put the regular expression to match against into a
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variable. This is to avoid shell parsing errors on otherwise valid
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regular expressions.
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REGEX="^[[:upper:]]{2}[[:lower:]]*$"
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# Test 1
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STRING=Hello
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if [[ $STRING =~ $REGEX ]]; then
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echo "Match."
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else
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echo "No match."
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fi
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# ==> "No match."
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# Test 2
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STRING=HEllo
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if [[ $STRING =~ $REGEX ]]; then
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echo "Match."
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else
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echo "No match."
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fi
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# ==> "Match."
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The interpretation of quoted regular expression special characters can
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be influenced by setting the `compat31` and `compat32` shell options
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(`compat*` in general). See [shell_options](../../internals/shell_options.md).
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#### The special BASH_REMATCH array variable
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An array variable whose members are assigned by the `=~` binary operator
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to the `[[` conditional command.
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The element with index 0 is the portion of the string matching the
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entire regular expression. The element with index n is the portion of
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the string matching the nth parenthesized subexpression.
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See [BASH_REMATCH](../../syntax/shellvars.md#bash_rematch).
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Example:
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if [[ "The quick, red fox" =~ ^The\ (.*),\ (.*)\ fox$ ]]; then
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echo "${BASH_REMATCH[0]} is ${BASH_REMATCH[1]} and ${BASH_REMATCH[2]}.";
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fi
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==> The quick, red fox is quick and red.
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### Behaviour differences compared to the builtin test command
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As of Bash 4.1 alpha, the test primaries \'<\' and \'>\' (compare
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strings lexicographically) use the current locale settings, while the
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same primitives for the builtin test command don't. This leads to the
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following situation where they behave differently:
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$ ./cond.sh
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[[ ' 4' < '1' ]] --> exit 1
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[[ 'step+' < 'step-' ]] --> exit 1
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[ ' 4' < '1' ] --> exit 0
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[ 'step+' < 'step-' ] --> exit 0
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It won't be aligned. The conditional expression continues to respect
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the locate, as introduced with 4.1-alpha, the builtin `test`/`[` command
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continues to behave differently.
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### Implicit arithmetic context
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When you use a numeric comparison, the arguments are evaluated as an
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arithmetic expression. The arithmetic expression must be quoted if it
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both contains whitespace and is not the result of an expansion.
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[[ 'i=5, i+=2' -eq 3+4 ]] && echo true # prints true.
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## Examples
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## Portability considerations
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- `[[ ... ]]` functionality isn't specified by POSIX(R), though it's
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a reserved word
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- Amongst the major \"POSIX-shell superset languages\" (for lack of a
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better term) which do have `[[`, the test expression compound
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command is one of the very most portable non-POSIX features. Aside
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from the `=~` operator, almost every major feature is consistent
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between Ksh88, Ksh93, mksh, Zsh, and Bash. Ksh93 also adds a large
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number of unique pattern matching features not supported by other
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shells including support for several different regex dialects, which
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are invoked using a different syntax from Bash's `=~`, though `=~`
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is still supported by ksh and defaults to ERE.
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- As an extension to POSIX ERE, most GNU software supports
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backreferences in ERE, including Bash. According to POSIX, only BRE
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is supposed to support them. This requires Bash to be linked against
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glibc, so it won't necessarily work on all platforms. For example,
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`$(m='(abc(def))(\1)(\2)'; [[ abcdefabcdefdef =~ $m ]]; printf '<%s> ' $? "${BASH_REMATCH[@]}" )`
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will give `<0> <abcdefabcdefdef> <abcdef> <def> <abcdef> <def>`.
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- the `=~` (regex) operator was introduced in Bash 3.0, and its
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behaviour changed in Bash 3.2: since 3.2, quoted strings and
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substrings are matched as literals by default.
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- the behaviour of the `<` and `>` operators (string collation order)
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has changed since Bash 4.0
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## See also
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- Internal: [pattern matching language](../../syntax/pattern.md)
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- Internal: [the classic test command](../../commands/classictest.md)
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- Internal: [the if-clause](../../syntax/ccmd/if_clause.md)
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- [What is the difference between test, \[ and \[\[
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?](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/031) - BashFAQ 31 - Greg's
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wiki.
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