Question

Here is my shell script and the error I get when running it:

#!/bin/bash

path=$1
execute=$2
a=$3
operation=$4
name=$5

if [ "$operation" == "run" ]; then
    cd $path
   ./$execute $a 
fi
elif [ "$operation" == "copy" ]; then
    mkdir -p $path
    cp $execute $path/$name 
fi
elif [ "$operation" == "delete" ]; then
     rm $path
     cd copy
     rm $name
     cd ..
     rmdir copy
fi

./commandsScript.sh: line 14: syntax error near unexpected token `elif'
./commandsScript.sh: line 14: `elif [ "$operation" == "copy" ]; then'

I’ve spent a long time trying all sort if-else statements variances but have not found the error solution. May someone help?

Answer 1

Consider using a case expression instead of a set of chained if statements:

case "$operation" in
run)
    cd "$path"
    ./"$execute" "$a"
    ;; 
copy)
    mkdir -p "$path"
    cp "$execute" "$path/$name"
    ;;
delete)
    rm "$path"
    cd copy
    rm "$name"
    cd ..
    rmdir copy
    ;;
esac

I’ve also taken the liberty to quote all of your parameter expansions, which is what you should get into the habit of doing to make your script robust against arguments/variables with embedded whitespace.

Also, I would advise investing in proper error handling.