Stop Writing if in Bash

Don’t act as though Bash is Python, or C. The most frequent trouble with shell scripts is using too many if statements for simple control. Although you’ll need conditional logic at times, Bash has its own, better way – right in the command line – of doing this: exit codes and logical operators.

The Basics

Each command in Bash gives back an exit code when it’s done. 0 means it worked, and anything else means it didn’t. You can link command running by using these codes with logical operators, and so get rid of long if blocks.

• ; (Semicolon): Runs the second command no matter what the first command did. It is the same as a new line.

• && (AND): Runs the second command only if the first command worked (exit code 0).

• || (OR): Runs the second command only if the first command failed (non-zero exit code).

Making Conditional Assignments Better

It’s usual to see if a variable has been set, and if not, give it a default.

The Long Way:

if [ -z "$EDITOR" ]; then
    EDITOR="vim"
fi

The Bash Way:

[ -z "$EDITOR" ] && EDITOR="vim"

In this, [ -z "$EDITOR" ] is a command that returns true (0) if the variable is empty. The && operator makes sure the assignment happens only when that’s the case. This turns three lines of standard code into one line that’s easy to read.

Linking Command Flow

This works for involved workflows with several things that have to be done. Rather than putting if statements inside each other to see if each step worked, use running chains.

The Nested Problem:

func1
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    func2
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        func3
    else
        handle_error
    fi
fi

The Logical Chain:

func1 && func2 && func3 || handle_error

In this structure, execution flows linearly. If func1 succeeds, func2 runs. If func2 succeeds, func3 runs. If any command in the && sequence fails, the chain breaks immediately, skipping the remaining && steps and triggering the || block to handle the failure (e.g., cleanup or error logging).

Conclusion

Script elegance lies in leveraging the shell's native behavior.

Use if when it genuinely improves clarity.

For everything else, logic chains are often the cleaner, more idiomatic choice.

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