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bashif-statementboolean-operations

bash compound if statement with booleans

I am trying to figure out why bash "miss-behaves":

REG=true 
VIN=false

if $REG -a $VIN; then
    echo $REG $VIN
fi

when run, it yields:

$ bash test.sh 
true false

I was expecting nothing, can you show how to make a complete evaluation of both variables ?

Solution

  • Use && instead in the most POSIX way:

    if [[ "$REG" && "$VIN" ]]; then
    echo $REG $VIN
fi

    If you want to use the -a, then surround with brackets:

    if [ "$REG" -a "$VIN" ]; then


    if $REG && $VIN; then