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Bad substitution error in shell script

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# 1  
Old 11-22-2012
Bad substitution error in shell script
I have script data.sh which has following error.

Script Name : data.sh


Code:
#!/bin/sh
infile=$1

len=${#infile} 
echo $len

texfile=${infile:0:$len-4}
echo $texfile


run command

./data.sh acb.xml

I get following error message:

./data.sh: 7: Bad substitution

May i know where i am wrong? How to fix this pblm?
# 2  
Old 11-22-2012
As a guess: the shebang is calling a POSIX shell that does not support the syntax.

Change the first line of the script to:
Code:
#!/bin/bash

So we do not guess, please let us know what UNIX you are using and your shell.
# 3  
Old 11-22-2012
Even with a #! change, I think something like this is needed:

Code:
 ${infile:0:$((len-4))}

as long as bin/sh is a bash or kshell.
# 4  
Old 11-22-2012
Works with bash:-
Code:
# cat substr.sh
#!/bin/bash
infile=$1

len=${#infile}
echo $len

texfile=${infile:0:$len-4}
echo $texfile

Code:
# ./substr.sh bipinajith
10
bipina

# 5  
Old 11-22-2012
@agama, don' think ksh supports the substring expansion and certainly bash will evaluate the length field so ${infile:0:len-4} is acceptable.
This User Gave Thanks to Chubler_XL For This Post:
agama
# 6  
Old 11-22-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chubler_XL
@agama, don' think ksh supports the substring expansion and certainly bash will evaluate the length field so ${infile:0:len-4} is acceptable.
I tried in Kshell -- it needed $(( ... )) and assumed that bash required the same. My bad for not testing with bash.

Thanks.
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