SC2268

[ "x$pass" = "xswordfish" ]

test x"$var" = x 

[ "$pass" = "swordfish" ] 

test "$var" = ""

Some older shells would get confused if the first argument started with a dash, or consisted of ! or (. As a workaround, people would prefix variables and values to be compared with x to ensure the left-hand side always started with an alphanumeric character.

POSIX ensures this is not necessary, and all modern shells now follow suit.

Bash 1.14 from 1992 incorrectly fails this test. This was fixed for Bash 2.0 in 1996:

var='!'
[ "$var" = "!" ]

Dash 0.5.4 from 2007 incorrectly passes this test. This was fixed for Dash 0.5.5 in 2008:

x='(' y=')'
[ "$x" = "$y" ]

Zsh (while not supported by ShellCheck) fixed the same problem in 2015.

If you are targeting especially old shells, you can ignore this warning (or use a different letter).

• What exactly was the point of [ "x$var" = "xval" ]?
• Wooledge Bash Pitfall #4
• Problems With the test Builtin: What Does -a Mean?