[plug] How to check for an empty string in a bash script.

[Leon Brooks]

"Anthony J. Breeds-Taurima" wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Buddrige, David wrote:
> > I have the following code in a bash script that I am writing...

>> if [ THE_PATH="" ]; then
>>       echo "The Path is:" $THE_PATH
>>       echo "FAIL! FILE DOES NOT EXIST."
>> fi

> if [ -n "$THE_PATH" ] ; then
>         echo the path contains data
> fi
> 
> if [ -z "$THE_PATH" ] ; then
>         echo the path is empty
> fi

Or the traditional and more portable if much uglier:

if [ X$THE_PATH = X ]; then
	echo 'The path is empty. Hammer to the metal! Let's moooove!'
fi

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