How to evaluate a boolean variable in an if block in bash? [duplicate]

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bash doesn’t know boolean variables, nor does test (which is what gets called when you use [).

A solution would be:

if $myVar ; then ... ; fi

because true and false are commands that return 0 or 1 respectively which is what if expects.

Note that the values are “swapped”. The command after if must return 0 on success while 0 means “false” in most programming languages.

SECURITY WARNING: This works because BASH expands the variable, then tries to execute the result as a command! Make sure the variable can’t contain malicious code like rm -rf /

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