: [: too many arguments in for -f in if


 
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# 8  
Old 07-12-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajaypatil_am
but when file does not exist it is giving "mv: cannot access .......pathname"
what is mean by file does not exist ?

Is your file name has multiple words ?

eg: filename : abcd efgh.s ( there is space b/w d and e )
# 9  
Old 07-12-2011
file does not exis = when there are no files at the given path
this scenario i just want "File Move -Fail" but currently along with "File Move -Fail" "mv: cannot access" is also getting displayed which I do not want ....
No file names do not have 'space' character ...it has '-' though ...
e.g filenames ...
Kay-Kaay-20110709060648-E-A.D.g.s



Quote:
Originally Posted by itkamaraj
what is mean by file does not exist ?

Is your file name has multiple words ?

eg: filename : abcd efgh.s ( there is space b/w d and e )
# 10  
Old 07-12-2011
ok, try this..

$? is a special variable which tells, the previous command is success or not.

if it holds 0, then it success.

Code:
 
ls -l /a/b/c/d/e/K*-*-*-*.s > /dev/null
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]
then
 for i in /a/b/c/d/e/K*-*-*-*.s; 
 do 
       #Here you can get the files one by one using $i
       mv $i newPath
       [ "$?" -eq "0" ] && echo "$i : File Move -Successful" || echo "$i : File Move -Failed"
 done
else
 echo "File does not exits"
fi

This User Gave Thanks to itkamaraj For This Post:
# 11  
Old 07-12-2011
itkamaraj Thank you for your help ...the final working code for me for the benefit of other users / readers .......
Code:
#!/bin/bash
ls -l path/name/K-*.s > /dev/null 2>&1
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then
for i in path/name/K-*.s ;
do
mv -f $i new/path/name
[ "$?" -eq "0" ] && echo "$i : File Move -Successful" || echo "$i : File Move -Failed"
done
else
 echo "Files does not exits"
fi

My real question here is like "K-*.s" I have 6 more patterns e.g K-*.gz , K-*.ff and so on at ....at path/name and ajay/x/y/z path .......one way is i can repeat the same above code 6 times to achieve this ....is there any other way which will do this in one shot so that i do not end repeating same code 6 times ......?

Quote:
Originally Posted by itkamaraj
ok, try this..

$? is a special variable which tells, the previous command is success or not.

if it holds 0, then it success.

Code:
 
ls -l /a/b/c/d/e/K*-*-*-*.s > /dev/null
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]
then
 for i in /a/b/c/d/e/K*-*-*-*.s; 
 do 
       #Here you can get the files one by one using $i
       mv $i newPath
       [ "$?" -eq "0" ] && echo "$i : File Move -Successful" || echo "$i : File Move -Failed"
 done
else
 echo "File does not exits"
fi


Last edited by Franklin52; 07-12-2011 at 05:51 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags for code and data samples, thank you
# 12  
Old 07-12-2011
# 13  
Old 07-18-2011
well ...back to the original topic of getting "too many arguments" error
....it was not because of " -f "

The problem was when i was running the script like "sh scriptname" it was running fine but for just "scriptname" it was giving above error.....

well , it was related with the default shell. I had set it as “#!/bin/bash” now I have changed it to “#!/bin/sh” and script is working fine ....

Thanks,
Ajay




---------- Post updated at 06:05 AM ---------- Previous update was at 06:03 AM ----------

itkamaraj ,
we CAN use -f, if we want to use the * in our pattern (at least this is working fine in sh shell...not sure about other shells ).Experts please comment ....
the problem was related to the default shell...

Thanks,
Ajay

Quote:
Originally Posted by itkamaraj
you cannot use -f, if you want to use the * in your pattern.

Code:
 
for i in /a/b/c/d/e/K*-*-*-*.s; 
do 
       #Here you can get the files one by one using $i
       mv $i newPath
       [ "$?" -eq "0" ] && echo "$i : File Move -Successful" || echo "$i : File Move -Failed"
done

# 14  
Old 07-18-2011
The problem was too many arguments, just like it said.
Your wildcard pattern K*-*-*-*.s matched more than one file, or there was a space in the filename. However, the [ -f file ] test expects exactly one file.
To test for existence of multiple files, the most common way is to make a loop:
Code:
for i in /path/name/K-*.s ; do
  if [ -f "$i" ] ; then
    echo "file $i exists"
  else
    echo "$i does not exist, or is not a regular file"
  fi
done

Please not the quotes in the test, "$i", which will make it only one argument even for filenames with spaces.
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