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If $# is a number, aren’t "$#" and $# exactly the same in Bash? Enclosing things in double quotes doesn’t change their type, since everything is already treated

by hk__2 6y ago

If $# is a number, aren’t "$#" and $# exactly the same in Bash? Enclosing things in double quotes doesn’t change their type, since everything is already treated as a string. https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Double-Quotes.html https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Double-Qu...

pizza234 6y ago
It's true, but you're semantically overloading the variable syntax (by hinting that it's treated as string). Plus, left and single operands, in bash conditions, don't require quoting, so a lean style is actually not to use them at all.
- tempodox 6y ago
  > …left and single operands… That's false: x='foo bar'; [ $x = 'foo bar' ]; echo $? -bash: [: too many arguments x='foo bar'; [ "$x" = 'foo bar' ]; echo $? 0
  - gravitas 6y ago
    As I replied to your other comment, you cannot just replace [[ with [ and get the same behaviour. If you use the actual bash builtin [[ which we're discussing, it works as expected. Also, please use == when comparing, = is an assignment operator (in almost every programming language).
    - tempodox 6y ago
      My bad. I interpreted “bash conditions” differently.
gravitas 6y ago
While the other reply to you is correct, the actual answer to your question is No -- bash interprets leading 0s (zeros) in the C sense, it indicates octal not decimal. So this very small bash will fail for you: X="08" if [[ "$X" -eq 8 ]]; then echo Y fi Use `bash -x` to run it in debug mode: $ bash -x test.sh + X=08 + [[ 08 -eq 8 ]] test.sh: line 2: [[: 08: value too great for base (error token is "08") This comes into play if you're dealing with things like IPv4 address, where it is technically allowable to have leading zeros, however by convention it's never done because of code traps which see those leading zeros as octal mode, not decimal.
- tempodox 6y ago
  Your example only demonstrates the effect of `[[`. If you replace it with `[` the error won't occur. In both cases double-quoting (or not) `$X` makes no difference in the context of your example.
  - gravitas 6y ago
    [ is an external program called "test" and [[ is a bash builtin, they have many different behaviours beyond just trying to use one to prove the other wrong on a random internet comment.
    - tempodox 6y ago
      I merely used that to show that the error message was tied to `[[` and not to the use of double quotes (which your parent comment was asking about).

by hk__2 6y ago

pizza234 6y ago

It's true, but you're semantically overloading the variable syntax (by hinting that it's treated as string). Plus, left and single operands, in bash conditions, don't require quoting, so a lean style is actually not to use them at all.

tempodox 6y ago
> …left and single operands… That's false: x='foo bar'; [ $x = 'foo bar' ]; echo $? -bash: [: too many arguments x='foo bar'; [ "$x" = 'foo bar' ]; echo $? 0
- gravitas 6y ago
  As I replied to your other comment, you cannot just replace [[ with [ and get the same behaviour. If you use the actual bash builtin [[ which we're discussing, it works as expected. Also, please use == when comparing, = is an assignment operator (in almost every programming language).
  - tempodox 6y ago
    My bad. I interpreted “bash conditions” differently.

gravitas 6y ago

While the other reply to you is correct, the actual answer to your question is No -- bash interprets leading 0s (zeros) in the C sense, it indicates octal not decimal. So this very small bash will fail for you: X="08" if [[ "$X" -eq 8 ]]; then echo Y fi Use `bash -x` to run it in debug mode: $ bash -x test.sh + X=08 + [[ 08 -eq 8 ]] test.sh: line 2: [[: 08: value too great for base (error token is "08") This comes into play if you're dealing with things like IPv4 address, where it is technically allowable to have leading zeros, however by convention it's never done because of code traps which see those leading zeros as octal mode, not decimal.

tempodox 6y ago
Your example only demonstrates the effect of `[[`. If you replace it with `[` the error won't occur. In both cases double-quoting (or not) `$X` makes no difference in the context of your example.
- gravitas 6y ago
  [ is an external program called "test" and [[ is a bash builtin, they have many different behaviours beyond just trying to use one to prove the other wrong on a random internet comment.
  - tempodox 6y ago
    I merely used that to show that the error message was tied to `[[` and not to the use of double quotes (which your parent comment was asking about).