SC2158 – ShellCheck Wiki

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[ false ] is true. Remove the brackets

Problematic code:

if [ false ]
then
  echo "triggers anyways"
fi

Correct code:

if false
then
  echo "never triggers"
fi

Rationale:

[ str ] checks whether str is non-empty. It doesn't matter if str is false, it will still be evaluated for non-emptyness.

Instead, use the command false which -- as the manual puts it -- does nothing, unsuccessfully.

Exceptions:

None

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