for loop - bash script syntax errror

Question

I am a beginner at unix and this is my first for loop with if statement. I am getting an error which says syntax error near unexpected token 'then'. Please can you help me fix this. What have i done wrong.

for file in $@
do
    if [[ ! -f $@ ]]
    then
           echo "Error. File does not exist."
           exit $ERROR_NO_FILE

    elif
    then
           chmod 755 $file
           echo "File permissions have been changed."
           exit $SUCCESS
    fi
done

[[ ! -f $@ ]]? Eh? -f can't take an arbitrary number of arguments, and you don't know how many things $@ will expand to. You want [[ ! -f "$file" ]] (lack of quoting acceptable there because of side effects of [[ ]], though it still doesn't hurt). — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:35
Also, you want for file in "$@", chmod 755 "$file", etc; -- as it is, this will break badly with filenames with spaces. Run your code through shellcheck.net and fix what it finds. — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:35
DO NOT CHANGE YOUR QUESTION IN A WAY THAT INVALIDATES PREEXISTING ANSWERS. — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:37
I was wondering why I had to edit the answer for correctness. Now I know, and reverting to the old version. Sorry! — Jean-François Fabre
– Jean-François Fabre ♦, Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:38
Do not write for f in $@. Quotes are important. It should be either for f in "$@"; do... or for f; do ... unless you have a very special use case and know the difference and you actually want an unquoted $@. In that case you will want to add a comment explaining exactly what motivates the unusual usage. — William Pursell
– William Pursell, Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 21:45

Jean-François Fabre · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-02 21:37:39Z

1

there is an extra elif/then in the middle. Try replacing it with an else

       exit $ERROR_NO_FILE

else
       chmod 755 $file

edited Dec 2, 2016 at 21:37

Jean-François Fabre♦

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answered Dec 2, 2016 at 21:32

user2599522

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1 Comment

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

@pogba123, because you still have the extra then; you aren't doing exactly what this answer tells you to do.

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