Shell script Comparison

Question

I have a script which compares 2 variables
The If statement if not displaying corect output
#!/bin/ksh
export a=2
export b=2
if [ "$a" -eq "$b" ];
then
echo "Not equal" >> /home/testlog
else
echo "equal" >> /home/testlog
fi
This script displays " not equal "
I tried the if statement without double quotes ...please help

Answer 1

Did the forum mangle your code? For example posting "{noformat}<{noformat}>" requires special handling as otherwise it gets treated at an empty HTML tag.
ksh uses "!=" for "not equal", or alternatively a "!" at the start of any test expression makes the test negative, so either of the following should work (in addition to the backward-compatibility "-ne" syntax):
if [[ $a != $b ]]
if [[ ! $a = $b ]]btw you could just have one redirection after the whole "if" expression rather than after individual "echo" statements. Also if $a and $b are always integers you can use the arithmetic expression syntax, e.g:
#!/bin/ksh
let a=2
let b=2
if (( a != b ))
then
    echo "Not equal"
else
    echo "equal"
fi > test.logAlso the exit status of the script as a whole will be that of the last command to be executed so I would avoid a hardcoded "exit 0" as it's a bit of a "when others".
Edited by: William Robertson on Apr 14, 2009 7:11 PM