45.9 The Unappreciated Bourne Shell ":" Operator

Some people think that the Bourne shell's : is a comment character. It isn't, really. It evaluates its arguments and returns a zero exit status ( 44.7 ) . Here are a few places to use it:

• Replace the UNIX true command to make an endless while loop ( 44.10 ) . This is more efficient because the shell doesn't have to start a new process each time around the loop (as it does when you use while true ):

  while : do    
  
  commands
  
   done

  (Of course, one of the commands will probably be break , to end the loop eventually.)

• When you want to use the else in an if ( 44.8 ) , but leave the then empty, the : makes a nice "do-nothing" place filler:

  if 
  
  something
  
   then : else    
  
  commands
  
   fi

• If your Bourne shell doesn't have a true # comment character, you can use : to "fake it." It's safest to use quotes so the shell won't try to interpret characters like > or | in your "comment":

  : 'read answer and branch if < 3 or > 6'

• Finally, it's useful with parameter substitution ( 45.12 ) like ${ var ?} or ${ var = default } . For instance, using this line in your script will print an error and exit if either the USER or HOME variables aren't set:

  : ${USER?} ${HOME?}