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risto3

Member

Registered: 2016-09-27

Posts: 36

recent bash difficulties using ····`test`

Maybe it's never been great bash scripting, but I've most often used `test` explicitly for what seems to provide better readability,
but since recently(since bash 5.1?) some of my scripts no longer work...

For example, something like the following (greatly simplified):
  if test $(hg summary | grep -q heads); then echo 'rebase needed'; fi

doesn't work anymore

but simply
  if $(hg summary | grep -q heads); then echo 'rebase needed'; fi
does.

Is this a lesson in fixing bad scripts or perhaps a new bug?

ayekat

Member

Registered: 2011-01-17

Posts: 1,614

Re: recent bash difficulties using ····`test`

if test $(hg summary | grep -q heads)

Unless that command between $(…) produces a valid sequence of strings that can be passed as arguments to test, that has never been valid bash (or sh in general) scripting. And IMHO it doesn't help readability at all (at least for someone knowing shell scripting…)

From what I can see, that will actually never do the `then` part, because `grep -q` will not output anything, and so no argument is passed to `test`, resulting in it always exiting with a non-zero return code.

I believe you wanted this instead:

if hg summary | grep -q heads; then …

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pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

risto3

Member

Registered: 2016-09-27

Posts: 36

Re: recent bash difficulties using ····`test`

yeah, cockpit error... thx

solskog

Member

Registered: 2020-09-05

Posts: 432

Re: recent bash difficulties using ····`test`

# hg summary | grep -q heads && { echo "rebase"; }

Same result, less typing maybe.

ayekat

Member

Registered: 2011-01-17

Posts: 1,614

Re: recent bash difficulties using ····`test`

No need for the curly braces, even:

hg summary | grep -q heads && echo rebase

But generally, I would recommend not doing any such code golfing unless it helps readability.

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pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag