Shell Programming and Scripting

Code:

 
+ l_filesleft=$'1\r'
mc.sh: line 8: syntax error near unexpected token `fi'
mc.sh: line 8: `  fi'

You would need to remove the control character \r present near $1 either by running

Code:

$ tr -d '\r' < mc.sh > mc_new.sh
$ ./mc_new.sh
# or if you have the dos2unix utility then
$ dos2unix mc.sh > mc_new.sh

Remember to give the closing fi statement in the if loop. For more info please check here on getting rid of control characters.

Thanks it worked

Initially I created the sh file using Textpad in windows8 and ftpied it to Linux. even though opening the sh file thru vi editor the special chars where not visible

That's why you should create them in UNIX in the first place instead of a system which uses carriage returns for its text files.

In addition to the above.
The shebang line MUST be the first line of the script if you want to override the shell. If you actually have "bash", you may not need the "ksh" line at all.

Use ASCII (not BINARY) mode ftp when transferring text files from Windows to unix. Most version of ftp default to BINARY unless the Windows filename has the extension .txt .