Table of Contents generated with DocToc
12 Conditional Expressions
A conditional expression is used with the [[ compound command to test attributes of files and to compare strings. Each expression can be constructed from one or more of the following unary or binary expressions:
-a file
true if file
exists.
-b file
true if file
exists and is a block special file.
-c file
true if file
exists and is a character special file.
-d file
true if file
exists and is a directory.
-e file
true if file
exists.
-f file
true if file
exists and is a regular file.
-g file
true if file
exists and has its setgid bit set.
-h file
true if file
exists and is a symbolic link.
-k file
true if file
exists and has its sticky bit set.
-n string
true if length of string
is non-zero.
-o option
true if option named option
is on. option
may be a single character,
in which case it is a single letter option name. (See Specifying
Options.)
When no option named option
exists, and the POSIX_BUILTINS option
hasn’t been set, return 3 with a warning. If that option is set, return
1 with no warning.
-p file
true if file
exists and is a FIFO special file (named pipe).
-r file
true if file
exists and is readable by current process.
-s file
true if file
exists and has size greater than zero.
-t fd
true if file descriptor number fd
is open and associated with a
terminal device. (note: fd
is not optional)
-u file
true if file
exists and has its setuid bit set.
-v varname
true if shell variable varname
is set.
-w file
-x file
-z string
true if length of string
is zero.
-L file
true if file
exists and is a symbolic link.
-O file
true if file
exists and is owned by the effective user ID of this
process.
-G file
true if file
exists and its group matches the effective group ID of
this process.
-S file
true if file
exists and is a socket.
-N file
true if file
exists and its access time is not newer than its
modification time.
file1
-nt file2
true if file1
exists and is newer than file2
.
file1
-ot file2
true if file1
exists and is older than file2
.
file1
-ef file2
true if file1
and file2
exist and refer to the same file.
string
= pattern
string
== pattern
true if string
matches pattern
. The two forms are exactly
equivalent. The ‘=’ form is the traditional shell syntax (and hence the
only one generally used with the test and [ builtins); the ‘==’ form
provides compatibility with other sorts of computer language.
string
!= pattern
true if string
does not match pattern
.
string
=~ regexp
true if string
matches the regular expression regexp
. If the option
RE_MATCH_PCRE is set regexp
is tested as a PCRE regular expression
using the zsh/pcre module, else it is tested as a POSIX extended regular
expression using the zsh/regex module. Upon successful match, some
variables will be updated; no variables are changed if the matching
fails.
If the option BASH_REMATCH is not set the scalar parameter MATCH is set
to the substring that matched the pattern and the integer parameters
MBEGIN and MEND to the index of the start and end, respectively, of the
match in string
, such that if string
is contained in variable var
the expression ‘${var[$MBEGIN,$MEND]}’ is identical to ‘$MATCH’. The
setting of the option KSH_ARRAYS is respected. Likewise, the array match
is set to the substrings that matched parenthesised subexpressions and
the arrays mbegin and mend to the indices of the start and end
positions, respectively, of the substrings within string
. The arrays
are not set if there were no parenthesised subexpressions. For example,
if the string ‘a short string’ is matched against the regular expression
‘s(...)t’, then (assuming the option KSH_ARRAYS is not set) MATCH,
MBEGIN and MEND are ‘short’, 3 and 7, respectively, while match, mbegin
and mend are single entry arrays containing the strings ‘hor’, ‘4’ and
‘6’, respectively.
If the option BASH_REMATCH is set the array BASH_REMATCH is set to the substring that matched the pattern followed by the substrings that matched parenthesised subexpressions within the pattern.
string1
< string2
true if string1
comes before string2
based on ASCII value of their
characters.
string1
> string2
true if string1
comes after string2
based on ASCII value of their
characters.
exp1
-eq exp2
true if exp1
is numerically equal to exp2
. Note that for purely
numeric comparisons use of the ((...
)) builtin described in
Arithmetic
Evaluation is more
convenient than conditional expressions.
exp1
-ne exp2
true if exp1
is numerically not equal to exp2
.
exp1
-lt exp2
true if exp1
is numerically less than exp2
.
exp1
-gt exp2
true if exp1
is numerically greater than exp2
.
exp1
-le exp2
true if exp1
is numerically less than or equal to exp2
.
exp1
-ge exp2
true if exp1
is numerically greater than or equal to exp2
.
( exp
)
true if exp
is true.
! exp
true if exp
is false.
exp1
&& exp2
true if exp1
and exp2
are both true.
exp1
|| exp2
true if either exp1
or exp2
is true.
For compatibility, if there is a single argument that is not syntactically significant, typically a variable, the condition is treated as a test for whether the expression expands as a string of non-zero length. In other words, [[ $var ]] is the same as [[ -n $var ]]. It is recommended that the second, explicit, form be used where possible.
Normal shell expansion is performed on the file
, string
and
pattern
arguments, but the result of each expansion is constrained to
be a single word, similar to the effect of double quotes.
Filename generation is not performed on any form of argument to conditions. However, it can be forced in any case where normal shell expansion is valid and when the option EXTENDED_GLOB is in effect by using an explicit glob qualifier of the form (#q) at the end of the string. A normal glob qualifier expression may appear between the ‘q’ and the closing parenthesis; if none appears the expression has no effect beyond causing filename generation. The results of filename generation are joined together to form a single word, as with the results of other forms of expansion.
This special use of filename generation is only available with the [[ syntax. If the condition occurs within the [ or test builtin commands then globbing occurs instead as part of normal command line expansion before the condition is evaluated. In this case it may generate multiple words which are likely to confuse the syntax of the test command.
For example,
[[ -n file*(#qN) ]]
produces status zero if and only if there is at least one file in the current directory beginning with the string ‘file’. The globbing qualifier N ensures that the expression is empty if there is no matching file.
Pattern metacharacters are active for the pattern
arguments; the
patterns are the same as those used for filename generation, see
Filename Generation, but there is
no special behaviour of ‘/’ nor initial dots, and no glob qualifiers are
allowed.
In each of the above expressions, if file
is of the form
‘/dev/fd/n
’, where n
is an integer, then the test applied to the
open file whose descriptor number is n
, even if the underlying system
does not support the /dev/fd directory.
In the forms which do numeric comparison, the expressions exp
undergo
arithmetic expansion as if they were enclosed in $((...
)).
For example, the following:
[[ ( -f foo || -f bar ) && $report = y* ]] && print File exists.
tests if either file foo or file bar exists, and if so, if the value of the parameter report begins with ‘y’; if the complete condition is true, the message ‘File exists.’ is printed.
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