Question

Here is the code

#file is named getpack2
count=0
while [ -n "$*" ] ; do
    ARRAY[${count}]=$1
    shift
    count=`expr $count + 1`
done

for t in "${ARRAY[@]}"; do
    mkdir $t
    cd $t
    touch hello
    cd ..
done

the line im using to run this is:

getpack2 vocals-doo flute-wood

this creates the desired directories and files

this will also work:

./getpack2 vocals-doo flute-wood

however, when I prefix the command with sudo:

sudo ./getpack2 vocals-doo flute-wood

it gives me the following errors

./getpack2: 7: ARRAY[0]=vocals-doo: not found
./getpack2: 7: ARRAY[1]=flute-wood: not found
./getpack2: 15: Bad Substitution

I’m very new to shell scripting. Just started learning it today. Is there some sort of scoping error?

Answer 1

Your superuser (root) may have a different shell that does not support arrays (for instance dash or some other small shell.) Try to program using only standard bourne shell constructs. Or include in the header of your script the interpreter to use:

#! /bin/bash