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up vote 2 down vote favorite

It's a simple question of best pratices: Which should I use?

Option 1

ping -c1 "$host"

if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ; then
   command
else
   command
fi

Option 2

if ping -c1 "$host" ; then
   command
else
   command
fi

I know this is a simple command, but if it grows big, the difference might be significant.

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2 Answers 2

up vote 4 down vote

It's a matter of preference, but the second form may be safer if you intend to add a set -e: this form will still work as expected, while with the first form, the script will end immediately if ping fails (returns with a non-zero exit status).

Note: the operator is -eq, not eq.

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Just typo the operator. But thx, I prefer the second one :D –  jonatas.baldin yesterday
up vote 1 down vote

You can use the following Bash idiom which may seem unreadable but is quite common in practice.

ping -c1 "$host" && command_success || command_failure
share|improve this answer
    
Yeah, know that. Can use the || also! –  jonatas.baldin yesterday

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