Re: bash 'if [[ <cond> ]]; then ...fi' should 'then' be redundant?

[Chet Ramey]

On 5/7/20 8:05 AM, Vang Le-Quy wrote:
> Ever since I wrote my first bash `if`, I was told to immediately use `then`. 
> This structure become so familiar:
> 
> ```
> if  [[ <condition> ]]; then
>                 statements
> else
>                 statements
> fi
> 
> ```
> 
> There might be a historical reason for `then` to be in there. But would it 
> just be straight forward without `then`? What is ambiguous about it?

The command after the `if' is any command list, not just a conditional
command. You use `then' to separate it from the true case command list.

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    address@hidden    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/