Perl one liner in Bash script - bash

Question

I have a bash script that runs, and I'm trying to use a Perl one-liner to replace some text in a file variables.php
However, I would like to check if the Perl one-liner runs successfully and that's where I get hung up. I could just output the one-liner and it would work fine, but I would like to know for sure that it ran.
Basically, the function replace_variables() is the function that does the update, and it's the if statement there that I would like to check if my one-liner worked properly.
I've tried using the run_command function in that if statement, but that did not work, and I've tried putting the one-liner directly there, which also didn't work.
If I don't wrap it in an if statement, and just call the one-liner directly, everything works as intended.
here's the full file
#!/bin/bash
export CLI_CWD="$PWD"
site_variables() {
if [ -f "$CLI_CWD/variables.php" ]; then
return true
else
return false
fi
}
replace_variables() {
# perl -pi -e 's/(dbuser)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["user"];/; s/(dbpass)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["pass"];/; s/(dbname)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["database"];/' "$CLI_CWD/variables.php"
if [run_command ]; then
echo "Updated variables.php successfully"
else
echo "Did not update variables.php"
fi
}
run_command() {
perl -pi -e 's/(dbuser)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["user"];/; s/(dbpass)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["pass"];/; s/(dbname)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["database"];/' "$CLI_CWD/variables.php"
}
if [ site_variables ]; then
replace_variables
else
>&2 echo "Current directory ($(pwd)) is not a project root directory"
exit 4
fi
here's the function where the if statement fails
replace_variables() {
# perl -pi -e 's/(dbuser)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["user"];/; s/(dbpass)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["pass"];/; s/(dbname)(\s+)=\s.*;$/\1 = Config::get("db")["database"];/' "$CLI_CWD/variables.php"
if [run_command ]; then
echo "Updated variables.php successfully"
else
echo "Did not update variables.php"
fi
}
You can see that I commented out the one-liner just before the if statement, it works if I let that run and remove the if/else check.
here is the original file snippet before the update
//Load from Settings DB
$dbuser = 'username';
$dbpass = 'password';
$dbname = 'database_name';
here is the file snippet after the update would run
//Load from Settings DB
$dbuser = Config::get("db")["user"];
$dbpass = Config::get("db")["pass"];
$dbname = Config::get("db")["database"];

Answer 1

tl;dr and Solution
This usage of if with [ ] will not give you the result you expect.
What you're looking for
...
if run_command; then
...
Longer explanation
Basics of if
if is a shell feature
based on the condition, it executes the body contained in between then and fi
the "condition" that if checks is a command
commands usually have a return/exit code. typically
0 for success
1 (common) and everything else for some error
e.g. 127 for command not found
when the return/exit code is 0, the body is executed
otherwise it is skipped; or control is passed to elif or else
the syntax is if <command>; then...
Where does that [ ] come from?
test is a command that can check file types and compare values
refer man test and help test (bash only)
[ ... ] is a synonym for test
NB the brackets should be surrounded by spaces on both sides
if [ -f "/path/to/$filename" ]; then
exception: when terminated by new line or ; space not required
test (or [ ]) evaluates expressions and cannot execute other commands or functions
if [ expr ]; then is alternate syntax for if test expr; then
PS: good practice to "quote" your "$variables" when used with test or [ ]
PPS: [[ ... ]] is a different thing altogether. not POSIX; available only in some shells. take a look at this thread on the UNIX Stack Exchange