[bash] Bash syntax error: unexpected end of file

Forgive me for this is a very simple script in Bash. Here's the code:

#!/bin/bash
# june 2011

if [ $# -lt 3 -o $# -gt 3 ]; then
   echo "Error... Usage: $0 host database username"
   exit 0
fi

after running sh file.sh:

syntax error: unexpected end of file

I got this answer from this similar problem on StackOverflow

Open the file in Vim and try

:set fileformat=unix

Convert eh line endings to unix endings and see if that solves the issue. If editing in Vim, enter the command :set fileformat=unix and save the file. Several other editors have the ability to convert line endings, such as Notepad++ or Atom

Thanks @lemongrassnginger

For people using MacOS:

If you received a file with Windows format and wanted to run on MacOS and seeing this error, run these commands.

brew install dos2unix
sh <file.sh>

I had the problem when I wrote "if - fi" statement in one line:

if [ -f ~/.git-completion.bash ]; then . ~/.git-completion.bash fi

Write multiline solved my problem:

if [ -f ~/.git-completion.bash ]; then 
    . ~/.git-completion.bash
 fi

In my case, there is a redundant \ in the like following:

function foo() {
    python tools/run_net.py \
                           --cfg configs/Kinetics/X3D_8x8_R50.yaml \
                           NUM_GPUS 1 \
                           TRAIN.BATCH_SIZE 8 \
                           SOLVER.BASE_LR 0.0125 \
                           DATA.PATH_TO_DATA_DIR ./afs/kinetics400 \
                           DATA.PATH_PREFIX  ./afs/kinetics400  \  # Error
}

There is NOT a \ at the end of DATA.PATH_PREFIX ./afs/kinetics400

I know I am too late to the party. Hope this may help someone.

Check your .bashrc file. Perhaps rename or move it.

Discussion here: Unable to source a simple bash script

Another thing to check (just occured to me):

• terminate bodies of single-line functions with semicolon

I.e. this innocent-looking snippet will cause the same error:

die () { test -n "$@" && echo "$@"; exit 1 }

To make the dumb parser happy:

die () { test -n "$@" && echo "$@"; exit 1; }

Make sure the name of the directory in which the .sh file is present does not have a space character. e.g: Say if it is in a folder called 'New Folder', you're bound to come across the error that you've cited. Instead just name it as 'New_Folder'. I hope this helps.

Missing a closing brace on a function definition will cause this error as I just discovered.

function whoIsAnIidiot() {
    echo "you are for forgetting the closing brace just below this line !"

Which of course should be like this...

function whoIsAnIidiot() {
    echo "not you for sure"
}

Apparently, some versions of the shell can also emit this message when the final line of your script lacks a newline.

In Ubuntu:

$ gedit ~/.profile

Then, File -> Save as and set end line to Unix/Linux

I just cut-and-pasted your example into a file; it ran fine under bash. I don't see any problems with it.

For good measure you may want to ensure it ends with a newline, though bash shouldn't care. (It runs for me both with and without the final newline.)

You'll sometimes see strange errors if you've accidentally embedded a control character in the file. Since it's a short script, try creating a new script by pasting it from your question here on StackOverflow, or by simply re-typing it.

What version of bash are you using? (bash --version)

Good luck!

an un-closed if => fi clause will raise this as well

tip: use trap to debug, if your script is huge...

e.g.

set -x
trap read debug

on cygwin I needed:-

 export SHELLOPTS
 set -o igncr

in .bash_profile . This way I didn't need to run unix2dos

FOR WINDOWS:

In my case, I was working on Windows OS and I got the same error while running autoconf.

• I simply open configure.ac file with my NOTEPAD++ IDE.

• Then I converted the File with EOL conversion into Windows (CR LF) as follows:

  EDIT -> EOL CONVERSION -> WINDOWS (CR LF)

This was happening for me when I was trying to call a function using parens, e.g.

run() {
  echo hello
}

run()

should be:

run() {
  echo hello
}

run

i also just got this error message by using the wrong syntax in an if clause

• else if (syntax error: unexpected end of file)
• elif (correct syntax)

i debugged it by commenting bits out until it worked

So I found this post and the answers did not help me but i was able to figure out why it gave me the error. I had a

cat > temp.txt < EOF
some content
EOF

The issue was that i copied the above code to be in a function and inadvertently tabbed the code. Need to make sure the last EOF is not tabbed.

I was able to cut and paste your code into a file and it ran correctly. If you execute it like this it should work:

Your "file.sh":

#!/bin/bash
# june 2011

if [ $# -lt 3 -o $# -gt 3 ]; then
   echo "Error... Usage: $0 host database username"
   exit 0
fi

The command:

$ ./file.sh arg1 arg2 arg3

Note that "file.sh" must be executable:

$ chmod +x file.sh

You may be getting that error b/c of how you're doing input (w/ a pipe, carrot, etc.). You could also try splitting the condition into two:

if [ $# -lt 3 ] || [ $# -gt 3 ]; then
   echo "Error... Usage: $0 host database username"
   exit 0
fi

Or, since you're using bash, you could use built-in syntax:

if [[ $# -lt 3 || $# -gt 3 ]]; then
   echo "Error... Usage: $0 host database username"
   exit 0
fi

And, finally, you could of course just check if 3 arguments were given (clean, maintains POSIX shell compatibility):

if [ $# -ne 3 ]; then
   echo "Error... Usage: $0 host database username"
   exit 0
fi