I am trying to check for a single period '.' in a shell variable. $ I=. $ echo $I . $ if [[ "$I" -eq '.' ]]; then echo true; fi -bash: [[: .: syntax error: operand expected (error token is ".") All other variants of this construct, with and without escape characters, single and double quote combinations, that I can think of all give exactly the same error. How does one check to see for this in a bash script? -- *** E-Mail is NOT a SECURE channel *** James B. Byrne mailto:ByrneJB at Harte-Lyne.ca Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca 9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241 Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757 Canada L8E 3C3