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Re: Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher?

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Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
> I've written a shell script that uses zenity to ask the user for
> a parameter, so it can be run from an icon in Xfce rather than
> the command line.  The if statements don't seem to be properly
> evaluated when the script is run through the GUI, although the
> script works properly when run from the command line.  Here's a
> stripped-down example that illustrates the problem:
> 
> x=$(zenity --list --text="Select an option" --radiolist --height 250 \
>   --column "" --column "Option" TRUE default FALSE test)
> echo "zenity returned /$x/" >foo
> if [ "$x" == "default" ]; then
>     echo "Default option was selected" >>foo
> elif [ "$x" == "test" ]; then
>     echo "Test option was selected" >>foo
> else
>     echo "This should never happen!" >>foo
> fi

> Zenity is setting $x to the desired value, but the if and elif
> statements don't recognize it.  Why should the if statements fail
> when run from the GUI, when they work when run from the command line?
> 
> I'm running Debian Jessie - here's the output of uname -a:
> 
> Linux dragon 3.14-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.14.13-2 (2014-07-24) x86_64 GNU/Linux
> 
> The properties for my icon run the script from my home directory, which is
> also specified as the working directory.  The "Use startup notification"
> and "Run in terminal" checkboxes are not checked.
> 
> Are there any gotchas that I have to watch out for?

It sounds as though the GUI is using sh (dash on Debian) when the script
contains bash-specific extensions.

Use single equals signs with the '[' command:

  if [ "$x" = default ]; then
  ...
  if [ "$x" = test ]; then

Or replace the entire if...fi block with a case statement:

  case $x in
   default) echo "Default option was selected" >>foo ;;
   test)    echo "Test option was selected"    >>foo ;;
   *)       echo "This should never happen!"   >>foo ;;
  esac

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Thread

Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-04-06 18:35 +0000
  Re: Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher? Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-04-06 20:06 +0100
    Re: Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-04-06 23:19 +0000
      Re: Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher? Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-04-07 09:08 +0100
  Re: Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher? dave.gma+news002@googlemail.com.invalid (Dave Sines) - 2015-04-06 20:20 +0100
    Re: Bash if statements fail under xfce launcher? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-04-06 23:19 +0000

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