Why is "if" block not working?

[andradei]

Here's my justife:

build *env:
  if env == 'prod' { "echo 'hello'" }

test *path: (build 'not-prod')
  go test {{ if path != '' { './...' } else { path } }}

I'm getting this error:

if env == 'prod' { "echo 'hello'" }
sh: -c: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file
error: Recipe `build` failed on line 48 with exit code 2

Why does this error mean?
How can I debug it?

[casey]

By default, recipe lines are executed by sh, not just. if … == … { … } is just syntax, so it won't work with sh.

[andradei]

Thank you. I'll be kind of verbose in my reply in an attempt to explain further (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

I think a better way to explain it. What clicked for me, is that each separate line inside a task/module (whatever it is called) is executed separately by sh -c unless specified otherwise.

So if/else just blocks don't work in when your sh -c "if env == 'prod' { "echo 'hello'" }" cause that isn't valid sh syntax.

The "each line is executed separately by sh -c" is also very important to keep in mind, as multi-line if/else, switch, loop statements don't also work unless there is a shebang directive at the top of the task/module (whatever it is called).