I'm trying to add a function to my bash_profile
for msysgit:
function git-unpushed {
brinfo=$(git branch -v | grep git-branch-name)
if [[ $brinfo =~ ("[ahead "([[:digit:]]*)]) ]]
then
echo "(${BASH_REMATCH[2]})"
fi
}
But I get the following error:
bash: conditional binary operator expected`
bash: syntax error near
=~'
From what I can find, the "equals tilde" operator (=~
) evaluates as regex in bash.
Why is =~
is throwing an error?
UPDATE: Here's a screenshot of inputting it manually (this is running sh.exe):
Run the script that contains the syntax error. Take note of the line mentioned by the Bash error. Execute the line with the error in a Bash shell to find the error fast (without having to change the script and rerun it multiple times). Update your script with the correct line of code. Confirm the script works.
There are many things that can go wrong in a Bash script and cause this error. Some common causes are missing spaces next to commands and lack of escaping for characters that have a special meaning for the Bash shell.
On Ubuntu, /bin/sh is dash, a shell designed for fast startup and execution with only standard features. When dash reaches line 68, it sees a syntax error: that parenthesis doesn't mean anything to it in context. Since dash (like all other shells) is an interpreter, it won't complain until the execution reaches the problematic line.
There is a syntax error. The token ‘ then ‘ is unexpected. All good! Lesson 3: When you see a syntax error verify that you are using Bash loops or conditional constructs in the right way and you are not adding any statements that shouldn’t be there.
I had the same error on Bash 3.1.0 from Git installation on Windows. Ultimately I changed it to:
if echo $var | grep -E 'regexp' > /dev/null
then
...
fi
According to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/msysgit/yPh85MPDyfE this is because msys doesn't ship libregex along with bash. Supposedly if you compile/find an msys built libregex, and put it in the library path, =~
starts working fine.
Update 2015: msysgit is now obsolete.
You should use the bash which comes with git-for-windows.
As mentioned in this answer, it uses a much more recent bash (4.3+), for which the =~
syntax will work.
Original answer (march 2013)
The bash packaged with msysgit might simply be too old to fully support this operator.
It is certainly too old to compare with unquoted regex, as mentioned in "Bash, version 3" and "How do I use regular expressions in bash scripts?":
As of version 3.2 of Bash, expression to match no longer quoted.
Actually, mklement0 mentions in the comments:
=~
was introduced in bash 3.0 and always supported an unquoted token on the RHS.
Up to 3.1.x, quoted tokens were treated the same as unquoted tokens: both were interpreted as regexes.
What changed in 3.2 was that quoted tokens (or quoted substrings of a token) are now treated as literals.
But I tried with quotes (in the latest msysgit 1.8.1.2), and it still fails:
vonc@voncvb /
$ /bin/bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.1.0(1)-release (i686-pc-msys)
Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
vonc@voncvb /
$ variable="This is a fine mess."
vonc@voncvb /
$ echo "$variable"
This is a fine mess.
vonc@voncvb /
$ if [[ "$variable" =~ T.........fin*es* ]] ; then echo "ok" ; fi
bash: conditional binary operator expected
bash: syntax error near `=~'
vonc@voncvb /
$ if [[ "$variable" =~ "T.........fin*es*" ]] ; then echo "ok" ; fi
bash: conditional binary operator expected
bash: syntax error near `=~'
vonc@voncvb /
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