Why does this simple bash code give a syntax error?

Question

I have the following bash code, which is copied and pasted from "bash cookbook" (1st edition):

#!/bin/bash

VERBOSE=0;
if [[ $1 =-v ]]
then
    VERBOSE=1;
    shift;
fi

When I run this (bash 4.0.33), I get the following syntax error:

./test.sh: line 4: conditional binary operator expected
./test.sh: line 4: syntax error near `=-v'
./test.sh: line 4: `if [[ $1 =-v ]]'

Is this as simple as a misprint in the bash cookbook, or is there a version incompatibility or something else here? What would the most obvious fix be? I've tried various combinations of changing the operator, but I'm not really familiar with bash scripting.

anon · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-15 12:09:51Z

11

Bash uses spaces to tokenise scripts. The line:

if [[ $1 =-v ]]

should be:

if [[ $1 = -v ]]

answered Jun 15, 2010 at 12:09

anon

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1 Comment

Tim Martin Over a year ago

I could have sworn I'd tried that, but obviously not. Thanks.

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