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What is the difference between the following two shell arithmetic commands:

echo $[ $var1 - 1 ]
echo $(( $var1 - 1 ))

Assuming var1 = 5 for example.

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  • In neither case you need the sigil, just echo $[ var1 - 1 ] and echo $(( var1 - 1 )) is enough. Commented Mar 6, 2013 at 7:01

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From man bash:

Arithmetic Expansion
   Arithmetic expansion allows the evaluation of an arithmetic 
   expression and the substitution of the result.  The format 
   for arithmetic expansion is:

          $((expression))

   The old format $[expression] is deprecated and will be 
   removed in upcoming versions of bash.
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  • You beat me to the answer while I was looking for this manpage snippet. Commented Mar 5, 2013 at 21:53

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