Question

what is wrong with my script? I am trying to call a function to see if a file is larger than a specified amount. If it is, i would like to remove the second file. If it is not larger than the specified amount than i would like the program to exit. Instead, I get this error message:
“syntax error near unexpected token `FILE'”
Can someone please help or direct me where I can get some help? Thanks. I have a Bash shell.

function e{
FILE = $1
FILESIZE=$(stat -c%s "$FILE") 
if [ "$FILESIZE" -gt 2048 ]; then
   echo "File $1 exists"
   `rm $2`
else
   echo "File $1 does not exist" 
   exit 
fi
}

e AD4_1hit.paired_mult.bam AD4_1hit.halfmapping_transloc.bam

Answer 1

You need to remove the spaces around the = …

FILE=$1

BTW, you don’t need the command-substitution `…` syntax around your rm command.

e () {
  FILE=$1
  FILESIZE=$(stat -c%s "$FILE")
  if [ "$FILESIZE" -gt 2048 ]; then
     echo "File $1 exists"
     rm $2
  else
     echo "File $1 does not exist"
     exit
  fi
}