Logical AND in a bash script

Question

I have an if in my bash script that has to check if EITHER of the 2 files exists, if they don't exist it should echo match.

Code I have:

if [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code ]] && [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code.class ]]; then
 echo "match"
fi

But this doesn't not seem to work for some reason.

I am 110% sure that these 2 files do not exist. I don't get any errors, it just doesn't enter the if.

I am new to bash scripting so I'm not sure what could be wrong.

Answer 1

If you want either then you want OR, not AND.

if [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code ]] || [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code.class ]]; then
 echo "match"
fi

• This will match if either or both files are missing.
• Your code will only print match if both do not exist.

But, you said:

I am 110% sure that these 2 files do not exist. I don't get any errors, it just doesn't enter the if.

So your statement contradicts itself. At least one of those files must exist, if you are running that code.

If you want to see how your if statement is evaluating, run it with -x.

#!/bin/bash -x
if [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code ]] && [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code.class ]]; then
 echo "match"
fi

Then you'll see the execution.

$ ./test.sh
+ [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code ]]
+ [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code.class ]]
+ echo match
match
$ 

Answer 2

Shouldn't that be like this ? A is a file or B is a file, then blabla.

if [[ -f /etc/benchmarking/code ]] || [[ -f /etc/benchmarking/code.class ]]; 
then  
  echo "match"
fi

Answer 3

This may also work for what you are trying to do. Single brackets are not commonly used today with bash, but this is still an option. Using -o is effectively an "OR" operation, and ! negates the condition.

var=/etc/benchmarking/code
[ ! -f "$var" -o ! -f "$var.class" ] && echo "match"

Answer 4

Your code satisfies your requirements: it will print match provided that it can't find either file.

Therefore the reason match is not being printed is elsewhere. You should confirm that the code block is being reached, which you can do by surrounding it with a couple of debug message. For example, like this:

echo '@ About to enter if...fi block'
if [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code ]] && [[ ! -f /etc/benchmarking/code.class ]]; then
 echo "match"
fi
echo '@ Finished if...fi block'

---

My usual preference is for debugging messages to go to stderr so as to avoid interrupting the flow of data to stdout, but I have avoided that here because you said you were a beginner. Here is one example showing how you could write to stderr:

echo '@ About to enter if...fi block' >&2