How do I use round brackets in an 'if' condition - bash

Question

I'm creating a bash script and somewhere inside I have this code:
if [ $# -eq 2 -a (! -r "$2" -o ! -f "$2") ]; then
echo "rvf: bestand \""$2"\" bestaat niet of is onleesbaar" 1>&2
exit 2
fi
When i try to run this inside the script I get this error:
Syntax Error (bash -n):
rvf: line 14: syntax error in conditional expression
rvf: line 14: syntax error near `-a'
rvf: line 14: `if [[ $# -eq 2 -a (! -r "$2" -o ! -f "$2") ]]; then'
How does '()' work inside Bash scripts?

Answer 1

[[ doens't support -a, and it is considered obsolete and non portable for [. The correct solution using [ would be
if [ "$#" -eq 2 ] && { [ ! -r "$2" ] || [ ! -f "$2" ]; }; then
Grouping is done with { ... } rather than ( ... ) to avoid creating an unnecessary subshell.
Using [[ is simplifies to
if [[ "$#" -eq 2 && ( ! -r "$2" || ! -f "$2" ) ]]; then
Parentheses can be used for grouping inside [[; as a compound command, it uses separate parsing and evaluation rules, compared to an ordinary command like [ (which is just an alias for test, not syntax of any kind).
In either case, De Morgan's laws lets you refactor this to something a little simpler:
if [ "$#" -eq 2 ] && ! { [ -r "$2" ] && [ -f "$2" ] }; then
if [[ "$#" -eq 2 && ! ( -r "$2" && -f "$2" ) ]]; then

Answer 2

There are multiple points of confusion here.
[ can (as an optional XSI extension to the standard) support ( as a separate word (meaning there needs to be spaces around it), but the POSIX sh specification marks it (like -a and -o) as "obsolescent" and advises against its use.
[[ does support (, but again, it needs to always be a separate word.
Don't do that at all, though. You're using only well-supported and portable functionality if you keep each test its own simple command and combine them only with the shell's boolean logic support.
That is:
if [ "$#" -eq 2 ] && { [ ! -r "$2" ] || [ ! -f "$2" ]; }; then
echo "rvf: bestand \"$2\" bestaat niet of is onleesbaar" >&2
exit 2
fi

Answer 3

Restructure your logic.
"Not A or Not B" is just a more complicated way to say "not (A and B)".
In bash, try
if [[ "$#" == 2 ]] && ! [[ -r "$2" && -f "$2" ]]; then
Better,
if [[ "$#" == 2 && -r "$2" && -f "$2" ]]
then : all good code
else : nope code
fi
Even better,
if [[ "$#" == 2 ]] # correct args
then if [[ -r "$2" ]] # is readable
then if [[ if -f "$2" ]] # is a file
then echo "all good"
: do all good stuff
else echo "'$2' not a file"
: do not a file stuff
fi
else echo "'$2' not readable"
: do not readable stuff
fi
else echo "Invalid number of args"
: do wrong args stuff
fi
Clear error logging is worth breaking the pieces out.
Even better, imho -
if [[ "$#" != 2 ]]
then : wrong args stuff
fi
if [[ ! -r "$2" ]]
then : unreadable stuff
fi
if [[ ! -f "$2" ]]
then : do not a file stuff
fi
: do all good stuff