Question

Write a code fragment (does not have to be a full script) that would test a bash variable $var for whether it is less than 5, greater than 5 or equal to 5. If it is equal to 5, output "EQUAL". If less than 5, output "LESS". If equal to 5, output EQUAL. Make sure it only does one of the outputs.

Answer 1

The question pertains to using conditional statements in bash to compare a variable to a number and output text based on the comparison. An if-elif-else structure is employed to check the numeric value of the variable and produce corresponding output.

Step-by-step explanation:

To test a bash variable $var for whether it is less than, greater than, or equal to 5 and output an appropriate message, you can use an if-elif-else structure in your code fragment.

Here is an example of how you would write this:

if [[ $var -lt 5 ]]; then
echo "LESS"
elif [[ $var -eq 5 ]]; then
echo "EQUAL"
else
echo "GREATER"
fi

Make sure that you have set $var to a numeric value before executing this code fragment. The script checks if $var is less than 5 using -lt, equal to 5 using -eq, and if neither condition is true, it assumes $var is greater than 5.