Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,
I'm a new user of UNIX and apologize if this question is too basic.
My probles is:
a) I need to execute a command on several files in turn and was hoping to write a loop script to do that.
b) From what I understood the basic loop begins with #!/bin/ksh, then there is do then the command and then done.
c) I tried to write something like this for practice:
#!/bin/ksh
for i in 1 2 3 4 5
do
echo "Welcome $i"
done
d) The problem:
'/test.txt: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `do
'/test.txt: line 3: `do

Any help would be greately appretiated!

Many thanks in advance!

Check this:

Code:

for ((i=0; i<10;i+=1)); do echo $i; done

As strange as this may sound...

The error message:

Code:

syntax error near unexpected token `do

is an sh / bash error.

The equivalent ksh error is

Code:

syntax error at line 3: `do' unexpected

The #!/bin/ksh must be on the first line. It specifies which program to use to execute the rest of the script.

All that said (apart from the error) the syntax is fine (in ksh and bash):

Code:

/root/tmp # cat Test
#!/bin/ksh
for i in 1 2 3 4 5
do
echo "Welcome $i"
done
 
/root/tmp # ./Test
Welcome 1
Welcome 2
Welcome 3
Welcome 4
Welcome 5

Many thanks for your suggestion.
What does i+=1 mean?
I don't know if that's what's expected, but basically it printed a couple of empty lines; no error message though...

It means add one to i.

What is your default shell?

Code:

echo $0

Many thanks scottn!
But #!/bin/ksh already IS the first line of my script. Am I misunderstanding something?

---------- Post updated at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:19 PM ----------

Thanks! I got confused with i++
I've got no idea what's my default shell. Do you know how to check it?

---------- Post updated at 12:22 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:20 PM ----------

I think my default id bash

---------- Post updated at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous update was at 12:22 PM ----------

It all works now! Many thanks for oyur help!!!

Not really. There's nothing wrong with your syntax.

Possibly either
a) you "ksh" is a link to some other shell (which doesn't understand what is the simplest of for loops!); or
b) you have a strange control character somewhere, somehow.

Try copying the code from this page and creating a new script with it.

---------- Post updated at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous update was at 07:23 PM ----------

I love it when things magically start working