Unix Scripting if statement correction

Question

im trying to check if my script ran correctly if not, to echo a message, however when i use this if statement, it produces an error on line '9' (if [ $? -eq 0 ]) Saying that a ' is missing.

#!/bin/bash
name=$1
if ["$name" = ""]
then
 echo -n "Enter a name to search for: "
        read name
fi

if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
 echo "Incorrect Input"
fi

kojiro · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-10 19:42:18Z

1

if ["$name" = ""]

is wrong because you must have a space between the [ and the expression (and before the ] as well).

There's nothing obviously wrong with the syntax of

if [ $? -eq 0 ]

but it's always dubious to check exit codes with arithmetic, since that's what if does directly. If your script is as you show it above, the second if statement should always be true. The fact that the previous if statement's expression was false doesn't matter, because the if statement yields zero if no condition tested true. For example:

$ if false; then echo hi; fi; echo $?
0

edited Apr 10, 2015 at 19:42

answered Apr 10, 2015 at 19:38

kojiro

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6 Comments

Andrew Barsoom Over a year ago

Well the first if statement runs fine. its the second one that keeps producing errors asking me to put a ' somewhere.

Andrew Barsoom Over a year ago

I think you're thinking into it too deep. Its a small assignment for my starter scripting class. It just echo a message if there was an incorrect input. thats it.

kojiro Over a year ago

@AndrewBarsoom how does it know there's an incorrect input?

Andrew Barsoom Over a year ago

Because it searches through a phonebook list, if the user does not input a name within the phonebook, it throws an error, i want to catch that error and echo back saying its an invalid input.

Walter A Over a year ago

@Andrew Did you leave out the statement that searches through the phonebook? Your comment suggets that the second if is looking to the result of the phonebook-search.

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