CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
hdub
hdub

Reputation: 321

can't seem to get this function with bash to work

# define some variables for later
date=`date`
usr=`whoami`

# define usage function to echo syntax if no args given
usage(){
    echo "error: filename not specified"
    echo "Usage: $0 filename directory/ directory/ directory/"
    exit 1
}

# define copyall function
copyall() {
    # local variable to take the first argument as file
    local file="$1" dir
    # shift to the next argument(s)
    shift

    # loop through the next argument(s) and copy $file to them
    for dir in "$@"; do
        cp -R "$file" "$dir"
    done
}

# function to check if filename exists
# $f -> store argument passed to the script
file_exists(){
    local f="$1"
    [[ -f "$f" ]] && return 0 || return 1
}
# call usage() function to print out syntax
[[ $# -eq 0 ]] && usage

here's what I can't figure out

# call file_exists() and copyall() to do the dirty work
if ( file_exists "$1" ) then
    copyall

I would also love to figure out how to take this next echo section and condense it to one line. Instead of $1 then shift then move on. Maybe split it into an array?

    echo "copyall: File $1 was copied to"
    shift 
    echo "$@ on $date by $usr"
else
    echo "Filename not found"
fi

exit 0

Upvotes: 1

Views: 91

Answers (2)

Jonathan Leffler
Jonathan Leffler

Reputation: 753765

It seems to me that the file_exists macro is superfluous:

if [ -f "$1" ]
then copy_all "$@"
else echo "$0: no such file as $1" >&2; exit 1
fi

or even just:

[ -f "$1" ] && copy_all "$@"

Upvotes: 1

lxop
lxop

Reputation: 8595

You probably just need to remove the parentheses around file_exists "$1", and add a semicolon:

if file_exists "$1"; then
    copyall

Upvotes: 0

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