bash: double or single bracket, parentheses, curly braces

Question

Hi,

I am confused by the usage of bracket, parentheses, curly braces in Bash, as well as the difference between their double or single forms. Is there a clear explanation?

Thanks and regards!

Answer 1

1. A single bracket ([) usually actually calls program named [; man test or man [ for more info. Example:

   $ VARIABLE=abcdef
   $ if [ $VARIABLE == abcdef ] ; then echo yes ; else echo no ; fi
   yes
   

2. The double bracket ([[) does the same thing (basically) as a single bracket, but is a bash builtin.

   $ VARIABLE=abcdef
   $ if [[ $VARIABLE == 123456 ]] ; then echo yes ; else echo no ; fi
   no
   

3. Parentheses (()) are used to create a subshell. For example:

   $ pwd
   /home/user 
   $ (cd /tmp; pwd)
   /tmp
   $ pwd
   /home/user
   

   As you can see, the subshell allowed you to perform operations without affecting the environment of the current shell.

4. Braces ({}) are used to unambiguously identify variables. Example:

   $ VARIABLE=abcdef
   $ echo Variable: $VARIABLE
   Variable: abcdef
   $ echo Variable: $VARIABLE123456
   Variable:
   $ echo Variable: ${VARIABLE}123456
   Variable: abcdef123456
   

Answer 2

In Bash, test and [ are builtins.

The double bracket enables additional functionality. For example, you can use && and || instead of -a and -o and there's a regular expression matching operator =~.

The braces, in addition to delimiting a variable name are used for parameter expansion so you can do things like:

• Truncate the contents of a variable

  $ var="abcde"; echo ${var%d*}
abc

• Make substitutions similar to sed

  $ var="abcde"; echo ${var/de/12}
abc12

• Use a default value

  $ default="hello"; unset var; echo ${var:-$default}
hello

• and several more

Double parentheses are used for arithmetic operations:

((a++))

((meaning = 42))

for ((i=0; i<10; i++))

echo $((a + b + (14 * c)))

and they enable you to omit the dollar signs on integer and array variables and include spaces around operators for readability.

Single brackets are also used for array indices:

array[4]="hello"

element=${array[index]}

Curly brace are required for (most/all?) array references on the right hand side.

ephemient's comment reminded me that parentheses are also used for subshells. And that they are used to create arrays.

array=(1 2 3)
echo ${array[1]}
2

Answer 3

I just wanted to add these from TLDP:

~:$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

~:$ echo ${#SHELL}
9

~:$ ARRAY=(one two three)

~:$ echo ${#ARRAY}
3

~:$ echo ${TEST:-test}
test

~:$ echo $TEST


~:$ export TEST=a_string

~:$ echo ${TEST:-test}
a_string

~:$ echo ${TEST2:-$TEST}
a_string

~:$ echo $TEST2


~:$ echo ${TEST2:=$TEST}
a_string

~:$ echo $TEST2
a_string

~:$ export STRING="thisisaverylongname"

~:$ echo ${STRING:4}
isaverylongname

~:$ echo ${STRING:6:5}
avery

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]}
one two one three one four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]#one}
two three four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]#t}
one wo one hree one four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]#t*}
one wo one hree one four

~:$ echo ${ARRAY[*]##t*}
one one one four

~:$ echo $STRING
thisisaverylongname

~:$ echo ${STRING%name}
thisisaverylong

~:$ echo ${STRING/name/string}
thisisaverylongstring