if statement

[Ulf Rompe]

Am Donnerstag, den 20.08.2009, 13:44 -0700 schrieb Ray Parrish:
> >> to the default of 300 seconds
> >>    if  [ $interval == "" ]
> >>
> >>        then
> >
> > Shouldn't this statement be something like :
> >
> > If [ $interval == "" ] ; then
> >
> > Aren't you missing the semi-colon here ?
> >
> It works fine without the semi-colon, does it need to be there for
> some other reason? 

You can separate statements with either linefeeds or semicolons. Thus
this:

    if true
    then
        echo "it is true"
    fi

is the same as this:

    if true; then
        echo "it is true"
    fi

or even this:

    if true; then echo "it is true"; fi

Since "then" is a required statement on its own (but looks ugly and
doesn't deserve an own line), it is common practice to combine "if" and
"then" on a single line, in which case you need the semicolon.

[x] ulf
-- 
One of the main causes of the fall of the roman empire was that, lacking zero,
they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.