SC2286 – ShellCheck Wiki

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This empty string is interpreted as a command name. Double check syntax (or use 'true' as a no-op).

Problematic code:

jq 
   ''
   file.json

Correct code:

jq \
  '' \
  file.json

Rationale:

ShellCheck found an empty string used as a command name. This is never valid.

If the command is intended to do nothing, use true aka : instead. Otherwise, determine why an empty string ended up as a command name and fix it accordingly. In the example, each line was interpreted as a separate command due to missing line continuations.

Exceptions:

None

Related resources:

• Help by adding links to BashFAQ, StackOverflow, man pages, POSIX, etc!

ShellCheck is a static analysis tool for shell scripts. This page is part of its documentation.