I m writing shell program to compare two numbers and show the status using test command
#!/bin/sh
a="42"
b="23"
echo $a
test [$a -eq $b]
echo $?
but I m getting error like this eq: line 5: test: [42: integer expression expected 2
-
1Also see How to use Shellcheck, How to debug a bash script? (U&L.SE), How to debug a bash script? (SO), How to debug bash script? (AskU), Debugging Bash scripts, etc.jww– jww2019-06-20 12:59:51 +00:00Commented Jun 20, 2019 at 12:59
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6 Answers
You have to change the line
test [$a -eq $b]
to
test $a -eq $b
test expects an integer expression and [$a -eq $b] is not an integer expression.
1 Comment
tink
and maybe a few explanatory words ... ? ;)
You have to use one because they are the same (regardless of some shell builtins)
$ ls -l /bin/{test,[}
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 22704 4 May 00:05 /bin/[
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 22704 4 May 00:05 /bin/test
so either
test expr
or
[ expr ]
or even
/bin/[ expr ]
answered Jun 20, 2019 at 5:50
Diego Torres Milano
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Comments
Loose the square brackets. from
test [$a -eq $b]
Where line should be
test $a -eq $b
Comments
Use below simplified answer
#!/bin/sh
a=42
b=23
echo $a
test $a -eq $b
echo $?
It will print answer as 1 since a is not equal to b
Comments
Please remove the square brackets.
From the manual pages, you use the square brackets as an alternate to explicitly using the "test" word. So it is one or the other.
From the man page:
test Evaluate a conditional expression expr. Syntax
test expr
[ expr ]
[[ expr ]] [ is a synonym for test but requires a final argument of ].
Comments
Try man test and in the manual page you will see that it expects your expression after test. Your expression being $a -eq $b, the command should be test $a -eq $b
What you are doing wrong:
- Using square brackets is as same as the test. Try
man [and you will be directed to the same manual page asman test. You are trying to use both - Since
[itself is a command, you need a space after[before the next part of the command. Therefore it should be[ $a -eq $b ]instead of[$a -eq $b]
In the line where you have used test [$a -eq $b], you can use either
test $a -eq $bor[ $a -eq $b ]
