On Friday 10 June 2016 00:00:12 David Christensen wrote:

> On 06/09/2016 07:41 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > A bash script that has worked most of a decade now refuses.
> >
> > For instance, assume that var InMail is = "gene", and can be echoed
> > from the command line using $InMail like this.
> > gene@coyote:~$ echo $InMail
> > gene
> > But I'll be switched if I can get a result from a line of code
> > resembling this from the command line while attempting to
> > troubleshoot a 110 line bash script: which asks "if test [${InMail}
> > = "gene"]
> >                       then
> >                             -----
> >                      elif (another name)
> >                             yadda yadda
> >
> > gene@coyote:~$ echo `test [${InMail} = "gene"]`
> >
> > All I get is the linefeed.  Obviously I'm losing it, so how do I
> > translate and get usefull output for troubleshooting?
>
> 'test' and '[ ... ]' are very similar.  I use the latter.  I
> definitely don't use both in one line.
>
>
> When comparing variables against string constants in '[ ... ]'
> expressions, I put quotes around the variables.
>
>
> Here's a short script that seems to work correctly:
>
>       2016-06-09 20:48:40 dpchrist@t7400 ~/sandbox/bash
>       $ cat gene-heskett.sh
>       #!/bin/bash
>       export InMail="gene"
>       echo "InMail=${InMail}"
>       if [ "${InMail}" = "gene" ]
>       then
>           echo "InMail is gene"
>       elif [ "$InMail" = "david" ]
>       then
>           echo "InMail is david"
>       else
>           echo "InMail unknown"
>       fi
>
>
> Here's a run:
>
>       2016-06-09 20:49:30 dpchrist@t7400 ~/sandbox/bash
>       $ ./gene-heskett.sh
>       InMail=gene
>       InMail is gene
>
>
> Here's a run with the '-x' option:
>
>       2016-06-09 20:56:19 dpchrist@t7400 ~/sandbox/bash
>       $ bash -x gene-heskett.sh
>       + export InMail=gene
>       + InMail=gene
>       + echo InMail=gene
>       InMail=gene
>       + '[' gene = gene ']'
>       + echo 'InMail is gene'
>       InMail is gene
>
>
> If that doesn't help, post a complete script that demonstrates the
> problem.
>
>
> David

I might just take you up on that when I am ready to add another layer of 
bulletproofing to it.  Its about 110 lines now.
Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>

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