How to make "if not true condition"?

try

if ! grep -q sysa /etc/passwd ; then

grep returns true if it finds the search target, and false if it doesn't.

So NOT false == true.

if evaluation in shells are designed to be very flexible, and many times doesn't require chains of commands (as you have written).

Also, looking at your code as is, your use of the $( ... ) form of cmd-substitution is to be commended, but think about what is coming out of the process. Try echo $(cat /etc/passwd | grep "sysa") to see what I mean. You can take that further by using the -c (count) option to grep and then do if ! [ $(grep -c "sysa" /etc/passwd) -eq 0 ] ; then which works but is rather old school.

BUT, you could use the newest shell features (arithmetic evaluation) like

if ! (( $(grep -c "sysa" /etc/passwd) == 0 )) ; then ...`

which also gives you the benefit of using the c-lang based comparison operators, ==,<,>,>=,<=,% and maybe a few others.

In this case, per a comment by Orwellophile, the arithmetic evaluation can be pared down even further, like

if ! (( $(grep -c "sysa" /etc/passwd) )) ; then ....

OR

if (( ! $(grep -c "sysa" /etc/passwd) )) ; then ....

Finally, there is an award called the Useless Use of Cat (UUOC). :-) Some people will jump up and down and cry gothca! I'll just say that grep can take a file name on its cmd-line, so why invoke extra processes and pipe constructions when you don't have to? ;-)

I hope this helps.

I think it can be simplified into:

grep sysa /etc/passwd || {    echo "ERROR - The user sysa could not be looked up"    exit 2}

or in a single command line

$ grep sysa /etc/passwd || { echo "ERROR - The user sysa could not be looked up"; exit 2; }

What am I doing wrong?

$(...) holds the value, not the exit status, that is why this approach is wrong. However, in this specific case, it does indeed work because sysa will be printed which makes the test statement come true. However, if ! [ $(true) ]; then echo false; fi would always print false because the true command does not write anything to stdout (even though the exit code is 0). That is why it needs to be rephrased to if ! grep ...; then.

An alternative would be cat /etc/passwd | grep "sysa" || echo error. Edit: As Alex pointed out, cat is useless here: grep "sysa" /etc/passwd || echo error.

Found the other answers rather confusing, hope this helps someone.