shell script - too many arguments

Question

I am unsure what is causing this error. Script continues to run and enters the "if" statement without issues.

"./test.sh: line 79: [: too many arguments"

if [ grep -Fq "variable=00000000000" /home/me/test.txt ] ; then             #line 79
             ........
             ........
else
             echo "hi"
fi

See: https://stackoverflow.com/q/13781216/6862601 – codeforester Jan 08 '20 at 21:53 — codeforester, Jan 08 '20 at 21:53

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 08 '20 at 21:21

Simply use :

if grep -Fq "variable=00000000000" /home/me/test.txt; then
[...]

or

grep -Fq "variable=00000000000" /home/me/test.txt && echo 'true'

Explanations

Every command have a return code that you can display with :

true
echo $? # return 0, true in bash
false
echo $? # return 1: false in bash

It's named boolean logic

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '20 at 21:21

[ ... ] is not part of the syntax of an if statement. [ is a command name, that requires a final argument of ] to simulate the look of syntax. Drop them if you want to run a different command whose exit status if should check.

if grep -Fq "..." /honme/me/test.txt; then

shell script - too many arguments

2 Answers2

Explanations