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up vote 3 down vote favorite

In my .bashrc file I have:

if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then . /etc/bash_completion; fi

I wanted to use [] around it instead of if then fi

I already have

[ -f ~/.bash_aliases ] && source ~/.bash_aliases
[ "${BASH_VERSINFO[0]}" -ge 4 ] && shopt -s autocd
[ -f ~/.git-completion.bash ] && source ~/.git-completion.bash

so I thought maybe I could use

[ [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && [! shopt -oq posix] ] && . /etc/bash_completion

but I get

-bash: [: -f: binary operator expected
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2  
[ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix && . /etc/bash_completion –  gniourf_gniourf 2 days ago
1  
+1 yup that works! –  Michael Durrant 2 days ago
1  
Please post, my fellow New Englander ;) –  Michael Durrant 2 days ago
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

You can just chain &&'s, no need to nest conditionals here:

[ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix && . /etc/bash_completion

works.

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up vote 3 down vote

You mix up two commands. [ is not eqivalent to if. [ is equivalent to test.

if is not even a simple command but a reserved word (like [[), part of a control structure. if ... then ... else ... fi is nearly eqivalent to ... && { ...; true; } || { ... }

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