[: too many arguments with Binary Conditional Operators

Question

I am trying to write a script but it is giving the above error

 if [ [ [ "$1" != "abc" ] && [ "$1" != "def" ] ] || [ [ "$2" != "1" ] && [ "$2" != "0" ] ] ];
 then
    echo "Hello World"
 fi

You should use more meaningful variable's name as it will be hard for you (or other) to understand your code. For instance, at the beginning of you string do: fish=$1; shark=$2 — Édouard Lopez
– Édouard Lopez, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 8:20
As @anubhava answer suggest Bash syntax is more powerful than POSIX shell. However it is less portable. — Édouard Lopez
– Édouard Lopez, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 8:22
[ is not a grouping operator; it's a command name, and as such you cannot nest them. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 13:18

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-29 08:03:12Z

2

Be careful with && and ||. You can simplify it to this in BASH:

if [[ "$1" != "abc" && "$1" != "def" ]] || [[ "$2" != "1" && "$2" != "0" ]];
then
    echo "Hello World"
fi

answered Aug 29, 2014 at 8:03

anubhava

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2 Comments

choroba Over a year ago

Or even [[ ("$1" != "abc" && "$1" != "def" ) || ( "$2" != "1" && "$2" != "0" ) ]], which is equivalent to [[ "$1" != "abc" && "$1" != "def" || "$2" != "1" && "$2" != "0" ]].

anubhava Over a year ago

Yes sure [[ ( "$1" != "abc" && "$1" != "def" ) || ( "$2" != "1" && "$2" != "0" ) ]] should also work.

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