>>>>> "D" == Dale Scheetz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
D> I have been trying to learn shell scripting using the man page for D> bash. Asside from the need for a lot of reading between the lines, D> there seem to be several errors. == is declared to be the equality D> operator, but = is the correct syntax. || is declared to be the or D> operator, but although: D> What is the correct syntax for this kind of statement? I think I see the source of your confusion. As usual there is more going on here than you thought. First you have to realize that [ foo ] is a special construct in bash, which is just a synonym for test foo So within the brackets, only the syntax that test can understand applies. See the bash man page for more details, but basically, test uses = for equality, but in other places (arithmetic "lets" etc.) bash uses == for equality (nice huh?). Also, test doesn't understand || at all, instead it uses -o for or. The || syntax is generally used for linking commands like: netscape || shutdown -h now <SARCASM INTENDED> The test entry in the bash man page has a list of all the operators that it can handle. [Std disclaimer about personal conviction that perl is easier and faster than the shell applies (of course there are good reasons to ignore this disclaimer)] Hope this helps, -- Rob
