Bash script comparing string with : in it

Question

Have trouble comparing a string with a ':' in it!

The script is bash on macOS.

The string I have is from grep of the output of a call to docker-compose ps and is (health: starting) .

I have tried if [[ $health == '(health: starting)' ]];then and variants. To test the value I have echoed it and get (health: I have tried to reproduce the issue in a small script but it seems to work fine.

This script is a work in progress so may have other problems

function getStatus {
    local  __resultvar=$1
    local  myresult='some value'

#   call=$(docker-compose --compatibility ps | grep "^$1 ")
#   a=( $call )

#   asize=${#a[@]}


    case $asize in
    4)
        status=${a[2]}
    ;;
    6)
        status=${a[4]}
    ;;
    7)
        status=${a[5]}
        if [[ "$status" =~ [^A-Za-z] ]]; then
            status=${a[4]}
        fi
    ;;
    8)
        status=${a[6]}
    ;;
    9)
        status=${a[4]}
    ;;
    10)
        service=${a[0]}
        if [[ $service == "identification-service" ]]; then
            status=${a[7]}
        else
            status=${a[4]}
        fi
    ;;
    11)
        status=${a[8]}
        if [[ $status -eq "Up" ]]; then
            health=${a[9]}
        else
            health=""
        fi
    ;;
    12)
        status=${a[8]}
        if [[ $status -eq "Up" ]]; then
            health="${a[9]}"
        else
            health=""
        fi
    ;;
    13)
        status=${a[8]}
        if [[ $status -eq "Up" ]]; then
            health="${a[9]}"
        else
            health=""
        fi
    ;;
    *)
        echo "Cant decode that! $asize elements"
        echo
        index=0
        while [ $index -le $asize ]
        do
            echo "${a[$index]}"
            ((index++))
        done
        exit
    ;;
    esac

    if [[ "$health" ]]; then
        if [[ $health == '(healthy)' ]];then
            result='healthy'
        elif [[ $health == '(unhealthy)' ]];then
            result='unhealthy'
        elif [[ $health == '(health: starting)' ]];then
            result='starting'
        else
            result=$health
        fi
    else
        result=$status
    fi
}

call=$(docker-compose --compatibility ps | grep "^$1 ")
# echo "$call"
a=( $call )

asize=${#a[@]}
# echo "Size: $asize - '$call'"

result=""
for VARIABLE in {1..10}
do
    getStatus
    echo "result = $result"
    if [[ $result == 'Up' ]]; then
        echo "$1 is up"
        exit
    elif [[ $result == 'healthy' ]]; then
        echo "$1 is up and healthy"
        exit
    fi
    echo "currently $result - waiting 3 second before checking again"
    sleep 3
done

echo "status of $1 is: $status but $health"
echo

Answer 1

What about this method using case/esac ?

  case $health in
  (*:*) echo has a colon;;
  (*)   echo has no colon;;
  esac

This is easy to extend for your other tests for (healthy) etc.

Answer 2

With

call=$(docker-compose --compatibility ps | grep "^$1 ")
a=( $call )

, the string (health: starting) will be split into 2 elements in the array so it won't work as you expect. You can verify like this:

[STEP 101] $ out=$( echo "... (health: starting) ..." )
[STEP 102] $ echo "$out"
... (health: starting) ...
[STEP 103] $ a=( $out )
[STEP 104] $ declare -p a
declare -a a=([0]="..." [1]="(health:" [2]="starting)" [3]="...")
[STEP 105] $

Not sure if docker-compose ps supports other shell-friendly output format. If not you have to parse the output all by yourself.