How can I find out which version of shell (bash and/or ksh) start to support ==

Question

both [[ string1 == string2 ]] and [[ string1 = string2 ]] means equal. But some other guy told me their machine don't support ==. The error message is: syntax error: `==' unexpected.

Seems they use pretty old UNIX with korn shell and I'm using REHL5.2. Since I cannot access their machines, how do I find out which version start to support "=="?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can look at the value of $SHELL and see if it's set to the shell's executable. You could then test and branch on the value of it, or lack thereof; I don't know if this will be set on older shells.

If you don't need the advanced features of [[ then use [ instead. This web page explains the differences in detail. Also take a look at this related question.

If you are only going to compare strings with == then use the POSIX syntax for the greatest compatibility: [ string1 = string2 ] which uses a single equals sign.