在shell中，可以使用-z运算符，如果字符串长度为零，则该运算符为True。

如果未设置默认MY_VAR，则使用一个简单的单行设置，否则您可以选择显示消息：

[[ -z "$MY_VAR" ]] && MY_VAR="default"
[[ -z "$MY_VAR" ]] && MY_VAR="default" || echo "Variable already set."

略读所有答案后，这同样有效：

if [[ -z $SOME_VAR ]]; then read -p "Enter a value for SOME_VAR: " SOME_VAR; fi
echo "SOME_VAR=$SOME_VAR"

如果您不使用SOME_VAR代替我的$SOME_VVAR，它会将其设置为空值；$这是工作所必需的。

为了明确回答OP关于如何确定变量是否已设置的问题，Lionel的回答是正确的：

if test "${name+x}"; then
    echo 'name is set'
else
    echo 'name is not set'
fi

这个问题已经有很多答案，但没有一个提供真正的布尔表达式来明确区分变量值。

以下是我得出的一些明确表达：

+-----------------------+-------------+---------+------------+
| Expression in script  | name='fish' | name='' | unset name |
+-----------------------+-------------+---------+------------+
| test "$name"          | TRUE        | f       | f          |
| test -n "$name"       | TRUE        | f       | f          |
| test ! -z "$name"     | TRUE        | f       | f          |
| test ! "${name-x}"    | f           | TRUE    | f          |
| test ! "${name+x}"    | f           | f       | TRUE       |
+-----------------------+-------------+---------+------------+

顺便说一下，这些表达式是等价的：测试＜表达式＞＜＝＞〔＜表达式＞〕

其他需谨慎使用的歧义表达：

+----------------------+-------------+---------+------------+
| Expression in script | name='fish' | name='' | unset name |
+----------------------+-------------+---------+------------+
| test "${name+x}"     | TRUE        | TRUE    | f          |
| test "${name-x}"     | TRUE        | f       | TRUE       |
| test -z "$name"      | f           | TRUE    | TRUE       |
| test ! "$name"       | f           | TRUE    | TRUE       |
| test ! -n "$name"    | f           | TRUE    | TRUE       |
| test "$name" = ''    | f           | TRUE    | TRUE       |
+----------------------+-------------+---------+------------+

if [[ ${!xx[@]} ]] ; then echo xx is defined; fi

if [[ ${1:+isset} ]]
then echo "It was set and not null." >&2
else echo "It was not set or it was null." >&2
fi

if [[ ${1+isset} ]]
then echo "It was set but might be null." >&2
else echo "It was was not set." >&2
fi

在现代版本的Bash（我认为是4.2或更高版本；我不确定）上，我会这样做：

if [ ! -v SOMEVARIABLE ] #note the lack of a $ sigil
then
    echo "Variable is unset"
elif [ -z "$SOMEVARIABLE" ]
then
    echo "Variable is set to an empty string"
else
    echo "Variable is set to some string"
fi