Compare command substitution string not null in fish

Question

I'm trying to test if a git repository has the showuntrackedfiles option set to no.

My first aproch was:

if test (git config --get status.showuntrackedfiles) = no 
    echo "hi"
else
    echo "bye"
end

but this breaks if showuntrackedfiles is not set.

test: Missing argument at index 2

(Type 'help test' for related documentation)
bye

The only workaround I've found is:

if test (git config --get status.showuntrackedfiles; or echo "") = no 
    echo "hi"
else
    echo "bye"
end

but it seems hacky. Is there a better way of approaching this?

This can't be about [tag:bash] if it's about [tag:fish]. Removing the Bash tag. — tripleee, Jun 11 '21 at 06:41

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 11 '21 at 13:18

No less hacky, but here's a way to see if a command substitution returned nothing:

set output (git config ...)
if test (count $output) -gt 0 -a $output = no; ...

Recall fish variables are lists, so count is checking if the list has more then zero elements.

1 Answers1