how to calculate the minimum of two variables simply in bash?
Had a similar situation where I had to find the minimum out of several variables, and a somewhat different solution I found useful was sort
#!/bin/bashmin_number() { printf "%s\n" "$@" | sort -g | head -n1}v1=3v2=2v3=5v4=1min="$(min_number $v1 $v2 $v3 $v4)"I guess It's not the most efficient trick, but for a small constant number of variables, it shouldn't matter much - and it's more readable than nesting ternary operators.
EDIT: Referring Nick's great comment - this method can be expanded to any type of sort usage:
#!/bin/bashmin() { printf "%s\n" "${@:2}" | sort "$1" | head -n1}max() { # using sort's -r (reverse) option - using tail instead of head is also possible min ${1}r ${@:2}}min -g 3 2 5 1max -g 1.5 5.2 2.5 1.2 5.7min -h 25M 13G 99K 1098Mmax -d "Lorem" "ipsum" "dolor" "sit" "amet"min -M "OCT" "APR" "SEP" "FEB" "JUL"