SC2160 – ShellCheck Wiki

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.