Why does -n with unquoted variable containing empty string return true?

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1 answer

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From man bash:

-n string
    True if the length of string is non‐zero.

Examples:

# expected
$ var=""; [ -n "$var" ]; echo $?
1

# unexpected?
$ var=""; [ -n $var ]; echo $?
0

Here we see that -n with unquoted variable containing empty string returns true. Why? Why is $var required to be quoted here?

Asked by pmor (665 rep)

Dec 28, 2023, 10:26 AM
Last activity: Dec 28, 2023, 04:35 PM