functions in /bin/sh scripts causing "unexpected "("" errors
Dave Korn
dave.korn@artimi.com
Wed Aug 17 18:16:00 GMT 2005
----Original Message----
>From: Kristin Wright
>Sent: 17 August 2005 19:03
> I'm observing the following error when I attempt to run shell scripts
> with functions in a cygwin shell. These scripts work as expected on
> my linux machines.
> $ ./functest
> ./functest: 3: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
> $ cat functest
> #!/bin/sh
>
> function helloworld () {
> echo "Hello, World!"
> }
>
> helloworld();
Oh, really?
On my RH8 box I just get:
------------------------------<snip!>------------------------------
[dk@pepper dk]$ cat foo.sh
#!/bin/sh
function helloworld() {
echo "Hello, World!"
}
helloworld ();
[dk@pepper dk]$ ./foo.sh
./foo.sh: line 7: syntax error near unexpected token `;'
./foo.sh: line 7: `helloworld ();'
------------------------------<snip!>------------------------------
This isn't C. To invoke helloword, you just put it as a line on it's own:
> helloworld
If you wanted to pass args, they would just be words following the
command:
> helloworld arg1 arg2 arg3
The brackets are only used in the definition, not the invocation.
> I'm guessing that this is a bug in this particular version of sh on
> cygwin
On cygwin, sh is in fact bash. At least, it is these days. Formerly, it
used to be ash, and that's the version you have on your machine; and the
syntax for functions you are using only works in bash.
Either specify /bin/bash in the shebang, or update your cygwin install
(specifically the bash package).
cheers,
DaveK
--
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....
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