You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
Vidar Holen edited this page Oct 20, 2022
·
1 revision
Escaping \< is required in [..], but invalid in [[..]]
Problematic code:
[[ aardvark \< zebra ]]
Correct code:
[[ aardvark < zebra ]]
Rationale:
Grammatically speaking, [ is considered a normal command name, so < and > are interpreted as redirections. When using the lexicographical string operators < and > in [ .. ], they must be escaped (e.g. \< or "<").
[[ is considered its own grammatical construct, and therefore it does not require (nor does it allow) escaping < or >.
Exceptions:
None
Related resources:
Help by adding links to BashFAQ, StackOverflow, man pages, POSIX, etc!