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URL:
https://askubuntu.com/q/1054677
Title:
What is the point of the bash Null-operator ":", colon?
ID:
/2018/07/13/What-is-the-point-of-the-bash-Null-operator-____-colon_
Created:
July 13, 2018
Edited: July 13, 2018
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September 15, 2024
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You can use it on the positive test of an if command when you only want to do something on the negative side. For example:
if [[ True == False ]]; then
:
else
echo "true <> flase"
fi
Without the : bash would generate a syntax error.
This is an oversimplified example. Generally you would use such a technique in preliminary coding when you haven’t written that code segment yet and just need something that doesn’t generate an error.