Can't compare lsb_release result to string in Bash

Question

I'm doing something wrong on the string comparison below. It works if I set a variable and compare that, but I can't copy the value to a string. Does anyone know what's wrong?

$ if [ "$(lsb_release -i)" = "Distributor ID: RedHatEnterpriseClient" ]; then echo yes; else echo no; fi
no
$ lsb_release -i
Distributor ID: RedHatEnterpriseClient
$ var="$(lsb_release -i)"
$ if [ "$(lsb_release -i)" = "$var" ]; then echo yes; else echo no; fi
yes

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 06 '17 at 15:35

That's because the output from lsb_release -i uses a tab instead of space:

lsb_release -i|od -c
0000000   D   i   s   t   r   i   b   u   t   o   r       I   D   :  \t
0000020   R   e   d   H   a   t   E   n   t   e   r   p   r   i   s   e
0000040   S   e   r   v   e   r  \n

Notice the \t at the end of the first line. Include that in your comparison string, and it will succeed:

if [ "$(lsb_release -i)" = $'Distributor ID:\tRedHatEnterpriseServer' ]; ...

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 06 '17 at 15:50

3

In this case I suggest -is:

if [ $(lsb_release -is) = "Debian" ]; then echo yes; else echo no; fi

answered Jul 06 '17 at 15:50

JJoao

11,887
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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 06 '17 at 14:27

0

It doesn't seem like a good solution, but this works:

if [ "$(echo $(lsb_release -i))" = "Distributor ID: RedHatEnterpriseClient" ]; then echo yes; else echo no; fi

answered Jul 06 '17 at 14:27

Aido

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1

Agreed: not a good solution. – glenn jackman Jul 09 '17 at 17:59

Can't compare lsb_release result to string in Bash

3 Answers3