Re: OT: Which tool, and how, to get partial string from file?

[Stefan O'Rear <stefanor@cox.net>]

On Fri, Aug 20, 2004 at 11:40:18PM -0500, Kent West wrote:
> Stefan O'Rear wrote:
> Just as a side question . . . . Some things I've read over the years 
> indicate that a conditional needs to be in brackets, ...

[ is a command.

if [ x = y ]

is an if command using the test [ x = y ]

[ x = y ] succeeds if x is equal to y.
It isn't, so the if isn't run.

> ... and some indicate 
> that the word "then" should be on the same line as the conditional 
> following a semi-colon...

(a) if foo
    then
       scream
    fi

and

(b) if foo; then
       scream
    fi

are exactly the same. It's a matter of preference.

> ... Is there any canonical structure to an 
> if-then-else statement in BASH, or are there four or five ways of 
> styling the statement? ...

Just like C, shell gives you ten gazillion ways to format any given
piece of code.