On Thu, 28 Jul 2011, James B. Byrne wrote: > I am trying to check for a single period '.' in a shell variable. > > $ I=. > $ echo $I > . > $ if [[ "$I" -eq '.' ]]; then echo true; fi if [ "$I" = '.' ]; then ... Use a single = rather than -eq (which tests numeric equality) and use single brackets -- or, better, call test directly: if test "$I" = '.'; then ... "help test" is your friend! -- Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/