Operator \> and \< (string version comparison) are not recognised in shell script

Question

I am trying to run Casandra nodetool and getting warnings coming from .sh script.

[root@d11ca4cc-fa95-c8a9-e133-e64c434f0e6f ~]# nodetool status
/opt/local/share/cassandra/bin/nodetool[53]: .[97]: [: <: unknown operator
/opt/local/share/cassandra/bin/nodetool[53]: .[102]: [: <: unknown operator
prtconf: devinfo facility not available
/opt/local/share/cassandra/bin/nodetool[53]: .[222]: [: <: unknown operator

At line 53 nodetool is calling cassandra-env.sh.

In cassandra-env.sh (lines 97, 102, 222):

...
97  if [ "$JVM_VERSION" \< "1.7" ] ; then
...
if [ "$JVM_VERSION" \< "1.8" ] && [ "$JVM_PATCH_VERSION" -lt "25" ] ; then
...
if { [ "$JVM_VERSION" \> "1.7" ] && [ "$JVM_VERSION" \< "1.8.0" ] && [ "$JVM_PATCH_VERSION" -ge "60" ]; } || [ "$JVM_VERSION" \> "1.8" ] ; then
...

I am not sure where the problem is but it looks to me like operator \> or \< is not recognised. Any advise?

What is the shebang at the top of the cassandra-env.sh file ? — user9517, Oct 15 '14 at 11:26
There is `!/bin/sh` in root file (nodetool) but nothing in cassandra-env.sh — ruruskyi, Oct 15 '14 at 11:30
In fact, bash recognises `\>` and `\<` just fine and compares string versions, for example, "1.7.0" will be recognised as "1.7". — ruruskyi, Oct 15 '14 at 11:34

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 15 '14 at 11:56

4

I don't have a Solaris system to hand but it appears that the script is relying on /bin/sh being a link to /bin/bash and as such is using bash syntax that sh doesn't understand.

As you've discovered changing the shebang to #!/bin/bash fixes the problem.

You should submit a bug report and hopefully the maintainers will fix it to be less Linux centric.

answered Oct 15 '14 at 11:56

user9517

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Thanks for the help. I already filed this issue to maintainers of the package. – ruruskyi Oct 15 '14 at 14:27

Operator \> and \< (string version comparison) are not recognised in shell script

1 Answers1