I am learning bash. I accidentally encounter a syntax error with empty function.
#!/bin/bash
# script name : empty_function.sh
function empty_func() {
}
bash empty_function.sh
empty_function.sh: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `}'
empty_function.sh: line 3: `}'
I suppose it is because of definition of an empty function. I would like to know Why I cannot define an empty function?
The bash shell's grammar simply doesn't allow empty functions. A function's grammar is:
name () compound-command [redirection]
function name [()] compound-command [redirection]
And in a compound command of the form:
{ list; }
list can't be empty. The closest you can get is to use a null statement or return:
function empty_func() {
:
}
or
function empty_func() {
return
}
return statement will return the status of the last command prior to calling empty_func. Since this is probably not the intent, it would be safer to use your 1st example, or simply replace return with true.Try this instead:
empty_func() {
:
}
