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Instead of [ true ], just use true.

Problematic code:

if [ true ]
then
  echo "always triggers"
fi

Correct code:

if true
then
  echo "always triggers"
fi

Rationale:

This is a stylistic suggestion to use true instead of [ true ].

[ true ] seems to suggest that the value "true" is somehow relevant to the statement. This is not the case, it doesn't matter. You can replace it with [ false ] or [ wombat ], and it will still always be true:

String In brackets Outside brackets
true true true
false true false
wombat true unknown command

It's therefore better to use it without brackets, so that the "true" actually matters.

Exceptions:

None.


ShellCheck is a static analysis tool for shell scripts. This page is part of its documentation.