Unable to set variables in bash script

Question

I am attempting to automate moving files from a folder to a new folder automatically every night using a bash script run from AppleScript on a schedule  I am attempting to write a bash script on Mac OSX  and it keeps failing  In short this is what I have  all my echos are for error checking       bin bash folder    ABC  useracct    test  day   date    d  month   date    B   year   date    Y  folderToBeMoved     users  useracct Documents Archive Primetime eyetv  newfoldername     Volumes Media Network  folder  month day year  ECHO  Network is  network   network ECHO  day is  day  ECHO  Month is  month  ECHO  YEAR is  year  ECHO  source is  folderToBeMoved  ECHO  dest is  newfoldername  mkdir  newfoldername cp -R  folderToBeMoved  newfoldername if  -f  newfoldername Primetime eyetv       then rm  folderToBeMoved  fi   Now my first problem is that I cannot set variables at all  Even literal ones where I just make it equal some literal  All my echos come out blank  I cannot grab the day  month  or year either it comes out blank as well   I get an error saying that -f is not found   I get an error saying there is an unexpected end of file   I made the file and did a chmod u x scriptname sh  I m not sure why nothing is working at all  I am very new to this bash script on OSX  and only have experience with windows vbscript  Any help would be great  thanks

User · Answer

folder    ABC  tries to run a command named folder with arguments   and  ABC   The format of command in bash is   command arguments separated with space   while assignment is done with   variable something      In   -f  newfoldername Primetime eyetv     is a command  test  and -f and  newfoldername Primetime eyetv  are two arguments  It expects a third argument     which it can t find  arguments must be separated with space  and thus will show error   -f  newfoldername Primetime eyetv  tries to run a command  -f with argument  newfoldername Primetime eyetv    Generally for cases like this  paste your code in shellcheck and see the feedback

User · Answer

Five problems    Don t put a space before or after the equal sign  Use          to get the output of a command as text    is a command  Put a space between it and the arguments  Commands are case-sensitive  You want echo  Use double quotes around variables  rm   folderToBeMoved

User · Answer

here s your amended script     bin bash     folder  ABC   no spaces between assignment     useracct  test      day   date    d     use     to assign return value of date command to variable     month   date    B        year   date    Y       folderToBeMoved   users  useracct Documents Archive Primetime eyetv      newfoldername   Volumes Media Network  folder  month day year      ECHO  Network is  network   network     ECHO  day is  day      ECHO  Month is  month      ECHO  YEAR is  year      ECHO  source is  folderToBeMoved      ECHO  dest is  newfoldername       mkdir   newfoldername      cp -R   folderToBeMoved    newfoldername  if   -f   newfoldername Primetime eyetv     then    lt -- put a space at square brackets and quote your variables   rm   folderToBeMoved   fi

User · Answer

Assignment in bash scripts cannot have spaces around the   and you probably want your date commands enclosed in backticks          bin bash folder  ABC  useracct  test  day   date    d   month   date    B   year   date    Y   folderToBeMoved   users  useracct Documents Archive Primetime eyetv  newfoldername   Volumes Media Network  folder  month day year  ECHO  Network is  network   network ECHO  day is  day  ECHO  Month is  month  ECHO  YEAR is  year  ECHO  source is  folderToBeMoved  ECHO  dest is  newfoldername  mkdir  newfoldername cp -R  folderToBeMoved  newfoldername if  -f  newfoldername Primetime eyetv   then rm  folderToBeMoved  fi   With the last three lines commented out  for me this outputs   Network is  day is 16 Month is March YEAR is 2010 source is  users test Documents Archive Primetime eyetv dest is  Volumes Media Network ABC March162010

[bash] Unable to set variables in bash script

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