fi

shell keyword to close conditional blocks

TLDR

Close a simple if statement

$ if [ condition ]; then commands; fi

Close an if/else structure

$ if [ condition ]; then commands; else other; fi

Close a chain with elif

$ if [ cond1 ]; then cmd1; elif [ cond2 ]; then cmd2; else cmd3; fi

Close an if written across multiple lines (no semicolon needed before fi)

$ then
cat [file]
fi```

**Branch** on any command's exit status, not just test

# SYNOPSISif list; then list; [elif list; then list;] ... [else list;] fi# PARAMETERSif

Begin the conditional; runs the following list and inspects its exit status.

then

Introduces the commands run when the preceding condition succeeded.

elif

Test another condition when all previous ones failed.

else

Commands run when no condition succeeded.

End of the if block ("if" spelled backwards).

# DESCRIPTIONfi terminates an if conditional. It is a reserved word rather than a command, recognized by the shell's parser only where a command could start, which is why it must follow a newline or a semicolon.The if construct tests exit status, not truth values: the condition is a command list, and the branch is taken when its exit status is 0. [ and [[ are simply commands that exit 0 or 1, so any program works as a condition, which is what makes idioms like if grep -q ... natural in shell.An if may contain any number of elif clauses and at most one else. Every if needs exactly one matching fi, including nested ones, and the block's exit status is that of the last command executed, or 0 if no branch ran.# CAVEATSBecause fi is only recognized in command position, writing if [ x = y ]; then echo hi fi silently passes fi as an argument to echo instead of closing the block, and the shell then reports an unexpected end of file. Put a semicolon or newline before it.An empty branch is a syntax error: the shell requires at least one command between then and fi. Use : (the null command) as a placeholder.A missing fi is usually reported at the end of the file rather than at the real mistake, so the line number in the error is rarely where the problem is.# HISTORYfi comes from the Bourne shell (1977) and is standardized by POSIX. Stephen Bourne borrowed the reversed-keyword convention from ALGOL 68, which used if/fi the same way; the shell applies it again in case/esac. do/done breaks the pattern, as od was already taken by the octal dump utility.# SEE ALSO[if](/man/if)(1), [else](/man/else)(1), [elif](/man/elif)(1), [test](/man/test)(1), [true](/man/true)(1), [while](/man/while)(1), [until](/man/until)(1), [bash](/man/bash)(1)# RESOURCES

$ Documentation

# INSTALL

$ aur: yay -S fi