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[bash] error comparing a variable to a string (solved) (self.learn_programming)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by rockSlayer to c/learn_programming@programming.dev
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I'm working on a bash script that navigates through a cloud path, and I'm getting the error -bash: [[: gs://: syntax error in expression (error token is "://")

To me, this indicates that bash is attempting to evaluate the variable instead of comparing strings, but I have no clue why that would be the case.

This is the relevant code:

GSPATH='gs://'
if [[ "$GSPATH" -eq 'gs://' ]]; then
    echo 'empty'
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[-] rockSlayer 1 points 1 week ago

I found my own solution: -eq seems to only be intended for numerals. The problem is easily fixed by using == instead. I found this out when I changed the if statement from [[ to [ and got a more precise bash error

this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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