On a side note, I think this style tweak makes it more readable: [ x"$var" = x"val" ] My eye doesn't have to separate "xval" into "x" and "val", so it's m

On a side note, I think this style tweak makes it more readable: [ x"$var" = x"val" ] My eye doesn't have to separate "xval" into "x" and "val", so it's more obvious that the value being compared against is "val". (It behaves the same way since the shell allows quoting to start in the middle.)