Home/ Questions/Q 8198063
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-07T05:52:20+00:00

I’ve written this script: #!/bin/sh DEVICE=`sysctl hw.machine` if [ $DEVICE = hw.machine: iPhone3,1 ]

  • 0

I’ve written this script:

#!/bin/sh

DEVICE=`sysctl hw.machine`

if [ $DEVICE = "hw.machine: iPhone3,1" ]
 then
  echo "Test Done"
 else
  echo "Test failed"
fi

After I run it I’ve got a message: ./test: line 5: [: too many arguments why isn’t it working ?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You should always quote your expansions. [ is an alias for the test command. Just like any other command it takes arguments. The $DEVICE variable is expanded prior to the command running.

    If $DEVICE contained whitespace, the command would look like this:

    [ foo bar = "hw.machine: iPhone3,1" ]

    In this example test is getting the arguments “foo” and “bar” before the comparison operator “=”.

    You need to quote the expansion:

    if [ "$DEVICE" = "hw.machine: iPhone3,1" ]

    Another note is that if using [[ in bash, this is not an issue as word splitting does not occur inside of [[.

    See the following for more information on quoting: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes

    • 0