Shell scripting debug help - Iterating through files in a directory.

Question

#!/bin/bash -f
files = 'ls /myDir/myDir2/myDir3/'

for file in $files do
    echo $file
    java myProg $file /another/directory/    
done

What i'm trying to do is iterate through every file name under /myDir/myDir2/myDir3/, then use that file name as the first argument in calling a java program (second argument is "/another/directory")

When I run this script: . myScript.sh

I get this error: -bash: files: command not found

What did I do wrong in my script? Thanks!

Answer 1

strip off the whitespace in and after files = as files=RHS of assignment

Answer 2

Remove the space surrounding the '=' : change

files = 'ls /myDir/myDir2/myDir3/'

into:

files='ls /myDir/myDir2/myDir3/'

and move the 'do' statement to its own line:

for file in $files
do
   ....

Answer 3

Per Neeaj's answer, strip off the whitespace from files =.

Better yet, use:

#!/bin/bash -f
dir=/myDir/MyDir2/MyDir3

for path in $dir/*; do
   file=$(basename $path)
   echo $file
   java myProg $file arg2 arg3
done

Bash is perfectly capable of expanding the * wildcard itself, without spawning a copy of ls to do the job for it!

EDIT: changed to call basename rather than echo to meet OP's (previously unstated) requirement that the path echoed be relative and not absolute. If the cwd doesn't matter, then even better I'd go for:

#!/bin/bash -f
cd /myDir/MyDir2/MyDir3

for file in *; do
   echo $file
   java myProg $file arg2 arg3
done

and avoid the calls to basename altogether.

Answer 4

quote your variables and no need to use ls.

#!/bin/bash 
for file in /myDir/myDir2/* 
do
  java myProg "$file" /another/directory/    
done