[sant]

Hello

I need make a script in Linux. It don`t work when I have several files in the directory (it return ./script: line 1: test: too many arguments), only when I have one file it work fine. I need make several actions when I have files, but I have this problem. Can anybody help me.

this is the script

if test -r /ftp/GESTOP/AI/entrada/INV*
then
ftp prodinven > /home/sant/inven/log/ftp.log 2>&1
exit 0
else
exit 1
exit 0
exit 1
fi

[stolze]

Once INV* is expanded, it may stand for multiple files. Those files will be separated by spaces and, thus, cause a syntax error if used with "test". You could iterate over all INV* files:

for f in "" /ftp/.../INV*; do
    if [ -n "$f" ]; then
        ftp prodinven > ...
        exit $?
    fi
done

Another alternative may be to list all INV* files and then check if the listing is empty or not.

[mike_bike_kite]

Hey stolze - very nice code! - but you should explain why it's better than the original so sant can learn from it rather than just copying it in.

Mike

[stolze]

My first sentence was hinting at the problem. INV* is expanded first, leading to something like

INV1 INV2 INVwhatever

If you inject that into your original statement, you get:

if test -r INV1 INV2 INVwhatever

When your shell parses that, it finds "test -r INV1" and then doesn't know what to do with INV2 and raises a syntax error. Thus, you have to accommodate for a variable number of files after expansion.