这也适用于：

if printf -- '%s' "$haystack" | egrep -q -- "$needle"
then
  printf "Found needle in haystack"
fi

阴性试验为：

if ! printf -- '%s' "$haystack" | egrep -q -- "$needle"
then
  echo "Did not find needle in haystack"
fi

我认为这种风格更为经典——更少依赖于Bash shell的特性。

--参数是纯粹的POSIX偏执狂，用于防止类似于选项的输入字符串，例如--abc或-a。

注意：在紧密循环中，此代码将比使用内部Bashshell特性慢得多，因为将创建一个（或两个）单独的进程并通过管道连接。

试试oobash。

它是Bash 4的OO风格字符串库。它支持德语元音变音。它是用巴什语写的。

有许多函数可用：-base64Decode、-base64Encode、-acapital、-center、-charAt、concat、-concontains、-count、-endsWith、-equals、-equalsIgnoreCase、-reverse、-hashCode、-indexOf、-isAlnum、-isAlpha、-isAscii、-isDigit、-isEmpty、-isHexDigit、-isLowerCase、-isSpace、-isPrintable、-isUpperCase、-isVisible、-lastIndexOf、-length、-matches、-replaceAll、-replaceFirst、-startsWith，-substring、-swapCase、-toLowerCase、-toString、-toUpperCase、-trim和-zfill。

查看包含的示例：

[Desktop]$ String a testXccc
[Desktop]$ a.contains tX
true
[Desktop]$ a.contains XtX
false

oobash可在Sourceforge.net上获得。

我使用这个函数（一个不包括但很明显的依赖项）。它通过了以下测试。如果函数返回值>0，则找到字符串。你也可以很容易地返回1或0。

function str_instr {
   # Return position of ```str``` within ```string```.
   # >>> str_instr "str" "string"
   # str: String to search for.
   # string: String to search.
   typeset str string x
   # Behavior here is not the same in bash vs ksh unless we escape special characters.
   str="$(str_escape_special_characters "${1}")"
   string="${2}"
   x="${string%%$str*}"
   if [[ "${x}" != "${string}" ]]; then
      echo "${#x} + 1" | bc -l
   else
      echo 0
   fi
}

function test_str_instr {
   str_instr "(" "'foo@host (dev,web)'" | assert_eq 11
   str_instr ")" "'foo@host (dev,web)'" | assert_eq 19
   str_instr "[" "'foo@host [dev,web]'" | assert_eq 11
   str_instr "]" "'foo@host [dev,web]'" | assert_eq 19
   str_instr "a" "abc" | assert_eq 1
   str_instr "z" "abc" | assert_eq 0
   str_instr "Eggs" "Green Eggs And Ham" | assert_eq 7
   str_instr "a" "" | assert_eq 0
   str_instr "" "" | assert_eq 0
   str_instr " " "Green Eggs" | assert_eq 6
   str_instr " " " Green "  | assert_eq 1
}

由于POSIX/BusyBox问题在没有提供正确答案（IMHO）的情况下结束，我将在这里发布答案。

最简单的答案是：

[ ${_string_##*$_substring_*} ] || echo Substring found!

or

[ "${_string_##*$_substring_*}" ] || echo 'Substring found!'

注意，对于某些shell（ash），双哈希是必须的。当未找到子字符串时，上面将计算[stringvalue]。它不会返回错误。找到子字符串时，结果为空，其结果为[]。这将抛出错误代码1，因为字符串被完全替换（由于*）。

最短最常见的语法：

[ -z "${_string_##*$_substring_*}" ] && echo 'Substring found!'

or

[ -n "${_string_##*$_substring_*}" ] || echo 'Substring found!'

另一个：

[ "${_string_##$_substring_}" != "$_string_" ] && echo 'Substring found!'

or

[ "${_string_##$_substring_}" = "$_string_" ] || echo 'Substring found!'

注意单个等号！

如果您喜欢正则表达式方法：

string='My string';

if [[ $string =~ "My" ]]; then
   echo "It's there!"
fi

这里回答的问题的扩展如何判断POSIX sh中的字符串是否包含另一个字符串？：

此解决方案适用于特殊字符：

# contains(string, substring)
#
# Returns 0 if the specified string contains the specified substring,
# otherwise returns 1.
contains() {
    string="$1"
    substring="$2"

    if echo "$string" | $(type -p ggrep grep | head -1) -F -- "$substring" >/dev/null; then
        return 0    # $substring is in $string
    else
        return 1    # $substring is not in $string
    fi
}

contains "abcd" "e" || echo "abcd does not contain e"
contains "abcd" "ab" && echo "abcd contains ab"
contains "abcd" "bc" && echo "abcd contains bc"
contains "abcd" "cd" && echo "abcd contains cd"
contains "abcd" "abcd" && echo "abcd contains abcd"
contains "" "" && echo "empty string contains empty string"
contains "a" "" && echo "a contains empty string"
contains "" "a" || echo "empty string does not contain a"
contains "abcd efgh" "cd ef" && echo "abcd efgh contains cd ef"
contains "abcd efgh" " " && echo "abcd efgh contains a space"

contains "abcd [efg] hij" "[efg]" && echo "abcd [efg] hij contains [efg]"
contains "abcd [efg] hij" "[effg]" || echo "abcd [efg] hij does not contain [effg]"

contains "abcd *efg* hij" "*efg*" && echo "abcd *efg* hij contains *efg*"
contains "abcd *efg* hij" "d *efg* h" && echo "abcd *efg* hij contains d *efg* h"
contains "abcd *efg* hij" "*effg*" || echo "abcd *efg* hij does not contain *effg*"