A way to do multiple statements per bash test && statement

Question

Does anyone know of a way to execute multiple statements within a bash test? So if I use:

[[ $Var = 1 ]] && echo "yes-1" || echo "no-1" 

And set Var=1 then output is: yes-1
If i set Var=2 then output is: no-1

And this work as I expected. But If i try to add another statement to execute in the mix and it doesn't work:

[[ $Var = 1 ]] && echo "yes-1";echo "yes-2" || echo "no-1";echo "no-2" 

Which makes sense as bash sees the command ending at; but... this is not what I want.

I've tried grouping and evals and functions and have had failures and successes but I'd really just like to do is have this work on one line. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

Simple command grouping should work; the syntax can be a little tricky though.

[[ $Var = 1 ]] && { echo "yes-1"; echo "yes-2"; } || { echo "no-1"; echo "no-2"; } 

A few things to note:

1. Heed @tvm's advice about using an if-then-else statement if you do anything more complicated.

2. Every command inside the braces needs to be terminated with a semi-colon, even the last one.

3. Each brace must be separated from the surrounding text by spaces on both sides. Braces don't cause word breaks in bash, so "{echo" is a single word, "{ echo" is a brace followed by the word "echo".

Answer 2

Consider using regular IF THEN ELSE statement. Use of && and || is justified in simple test such as this:

[[ -z "$PATH" ]] && echo 'Disaster, PATH is empty!' || echo 'Everything ok!' 

But, consider following command:

true && true && true && false && true || echo 'False!' False! 

OR

true && { echo true; false ; } || { echo false; true ; } true false 

Anytime a non-zero exit status is returned, command after || is executed. As you can see, even command grouping doesn't help.

Execution in subshell behaves in similar manner:

true && ( true; echo true; true; false ) || ( true; echo true; false ) true true 

Just use regular IF, if you need proper IF behavior.