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Expr: non-numeric argument syntax error on line 1, teletype

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# 1  
Old 10-31-2017
Wrench Expr: non-numeric argument syntax error on line 1, teletype
Hi,

I tried to look up the issue i'm experiencing, but i'm confused what's wrong with my script.

After executing the script I'm getting the following error

Code:
expr: non-numeric argument
syntax error on line 1, teletype

After some research, it seems that the problem relates to bc.
I have the following part from the script:

Code:
FREE=`df -g $i | grep files | awk '{print$1}' | tail -1`
TOTAL=`df -g $i | grep files | awk '{print$9}' | head -1`
USED=`expr $TOTAL - $FREE`
USED_PER=`echo "scale = 5; ($USED / $TOTAL)*100" | bc`
USED_PER=`printf %0.f $USED_PER`
OUTPUT=`echo $DATE "|" $i "|" $USED_PER`

and changed the above to the below, however issue is still persisting. While performing bash -x, i noticed that all values are being retrieved, but noticed that some values are negative or float.

Code:
FREE=$(df -g $i | grep files | awk '{print$1}' | tail -1)
TOTAL=$(df -g $i | grep files | awk '{print$9}' | head -1)
USED=$(expr $TOTAL - $FREE)
USED_PER=$(echo "scale = 5; ($USED / ($TOTAL))*100" | /usr/bin/bc)
USED_PER=`printf %0.f $USED_PER`
OUTPUT=`echo $DATE "|" $i "|" $USED_PER`

Can someone shed some light on what could be the problem?
Last edited by Scott; 10-31-2017 at 09:46 AM.. Reason: Use code tags, please...
# 2  
Old 10-31-2017
Quote:
Originally Posted by nms
Code:
expr: non-numeric argument
syntax error on line 1, teletype

Code:
USED=`expr $TOTAL - $FREE`

expr expects that $TOTAL and $FREE would be a numeric argument. You do not check before hand that that's what they have before using it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nms
and changed the above to the below, however issue is still persisting. While performing bash -x, i noticed that all values are being retrieved, but noticed that some values are negative or float.

Code:
FREE=$(df -g $i | grep files | awk '{print$1}' | tail -1)
TOTAL=$(df -g $i | grep files | awk '{print$9}' | head -1)
USED=$(expr $TOTAL - $FREE)
USED_PER=$(echo "scale = 5; ($USED / ($TOTAL))*100" | /usr/bin/bc)
USED_PER=`printf %0.f $USED_PER`
OUTPUT=`echo $DATE "|" $i "|" $USED_PER`

Can someone shed some light on what could be the problem?
From man bc in my system.
Code:
There are two attributes of numbers, the length and the scale.  The length is the total number of significant decimal digits in a num-
       ber and the scale is the total number of decimal digits after the decimal point.  For example:
               .000001 has a length of 6 and scale of 6.
               1935.000 has a length of 7 and a scale of 3.

You are using old shell scripting syntax. If you had posted what OS and shell type you are using more could had been said about those.
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