CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashfunctionconditional-statements
kaligne
kaligne

Reputation: 3278

Bash conditions always evaluate true in script

I have a condition which seems to always be evaluated as true.

#!/bin/bash

checkFolder() {
    echo "[checkFolder]"
    echo "check $1"
    [ -n "$1" ] && [ -d "$1" ] && return 0
    echo "[/checkFolder]"
    return 1
}

rootFolder=$1

echo "check $rootFolder"
checkFolder "$rootFolder"
echo "res: $res"   # !! <--- I omitted this test line, as I thought it was irrelevant. 
echo "ret: $?"

When I execute my script, any path will give me a return value of 0. Which means that any string I provide seems to be seen as non-empty as well as an existing directory. I tried with:

./myScript.sh "."
./myScript.sh ""
./myScript.sh "wqert"

I will aways get a return value of 0. How comes? If I run this command in my terminal:

param=""
[ -n "$param" ] && [ -d "$param" ] && echo ok
# returns nothing

param="hello"
[ -n "$param" ] && [ -d "$param" ] && echo ok
# returns nothing

param="/home"
[ -n "$param" ] && [ -d "$param" ] && echo ok
# returns "ok"

Why doesn't it work in my script?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 124

Answers (2)

user2350426
user2350426

Reputation:

What the command return changes is the "exit code" of the function.
Add this:

 checkFolder "$rootFolder"
 echo "the exit code was $?"

And see the effect of your return 0 and return 1.

Upvotes: 1

that other guy
that other guy

Reputation: 123480

$? is the exit code of the last executed command. In your case, the last executed command is echo, not checkFolder.

If you want to execute other commands between running a command and checking its status, assign it to a variable with myvar=$?

Upvotes: 4

Related Questions