Bash syntax error: "[[: not found"

Question

I'm working with a bash script that is currently working on a server (RHEL4). I'm developing on my laptop with Ubuntu 10.04, but I don't think the platform is causing the problem.

Here's what's happening: I have a skeleton script that calls another script that does most of the work. However, it makes calls to getConfig.sh a lot. getConfig.sh basically just parses some command line argument (using getopts) and calls a Java program to parse some XML files. Anyways, getConfig.sh is throwing up lots of errors (but still seems to work).

Here's the message that I'm getting

getconfig.sh: 89: [[: not found
getconfig.sh: 89: [[: not found
getconfig.sh: 94: [[: not found

I get those three errors every time it runs; however, the script completes and the Java code runs.

Here's the relavent code section

parseOptions $*

if [[ "${debugMode}" == "true" ]] ; then
    DEBUG="-DDEBUG=true"
    echo "${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java ${DEBUG} -Djava.endorsed.dirs=${JAXP_HOME} -jar $(dirname $0)/GetXPath.jar ${XML_File} ${XPath_Query}"
fi

Line 89 is "parseOptions $* and line 94 is "fi"

Thanks for the answers.

As an aside, `$*` is buggy -- it'll change two arguments `"argument one" "argument two"` into four agruments, `"argument" "one" "argument" "two"`. Instead, use `"$@"`. — Charles Duffy, Feb 14 '18 at 19:20
Delete `sh` with `sudo rm /bin/sh` and then, execute `sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh` — Antonio Moreno, Apr 29 '21 at 19:06

score 181 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 31 '15 at 09:25

181

If your script is executable and you are executing it like ./getconfig.sh, the first line of your script needs to be:

#!/bin/bash

Without that shebang line, your script will be interpreted by sh which doesn't understand [[ in if statements.

Otherwise, you should run your script like bash getconfig.sh, not sh getconfig.sh. Even if your default shell is bash, scripts run with sh will use a reduced set of bash's features, in order to be more compliant with the POSIX standard. [[ is one of the features that is disabled.

edited Jul 31 '15 at 09:25

Tom Fenech

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answered Aug 03 '10 at 22:17

Dennis Williamson

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2

Thanks Dennis. The dufus who originally wrote this code used #!/bin/sh on all the scripts. I missed changing this one. – Justin Aug 03 '10 at 23:17
3

I am seeing this same issue, but i have `#!/bin/bash` at the top of my script. – prolink007 Oct 19 '12 at 16:40
19

I figured out the issue. If you are calling the script from another script make sure you are using `bash nameofscript.sh` instead of `sh nameofscript.sh`. – prolink007 Oct 19 '12 at 16:49
1

Ugh.. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Mine said #!/bin/sh. How did that get there?! – Tony Fraser Sep 18 '20 at 00:09
`$ sudo rm /bin/sh` and execute `$ sudo ln -s /bin/bash /bin/sh` – Antonio Moreno Apr 29 '21 at 19:05
@AntonioMoreno: This could cause issues and would likely be reverted during a system update. It's better to not delete the file and put the symlink in `/usr/local/bin` and have that directory earlier in your `PATH` than `/bin`. – Dennis Williamson Jun 26 '22 at 16:09
@DennisWilliamson Thank you , this is one of those thing that you need to look for when the hours are getting long... – soBusted Dec 15 '22 at 16:56

score 42 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '18 at 21:55

42

Use:

bash scriptname.sh

instead of:

sh scriptname.sh

answered Jun 20 '18 at 21:55

Daniel Kmak

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If you want to learn the difference between sh and bash, you can take a look at https://stackoverflow.com/a/5725402/5672563 – Levent Tugay Kaplan Dec 29 '22 at 13:50

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 03 '10 at 22:21

-1

If you are checking for equality, shouldn't the if be ?

if [[ "${debugMode}" = "true" ]]; then .... fi

answered Aug 03 '10 at 22:21

Gangadhar

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1

In Bash, in this context, `==` and `=` are interchangeable. – Dennis Williamson Aug 03 '10 at 22:40
1

This should be a comment, not an answer – drkvogel Feb 06 '22 at 08:33

Bash syntax error: "[[: not found"

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