Shell scripting error: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

Question

Can someone explain to me why the following shell script line throws this error:

Syntax error: "(" unexpected

yes: There is an unexpected '('. I suppose you know that ;-). What are you trying to do? — yankee
– yankee, Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 21:03
you might escape the parens: $name=default userid=$from \ send=$TMP/basename $1$ — Jay
– Jay, Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 21:07

Jordan · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-12 21:08:12Z

1

Shell scripts expect variables to be set in the pattern of:

VARIABLE=value

You can't have any additional = signs in there. However, you can execute other scripts like this:

VARIABLE=$(basename $1)
VARIABLE=`basename $1`

Either one works.

In your case, I can't tell what you're doing, but it isn't right at all. My guess is that you need to do this:

env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(basename $1)

answered Feb 12, 2013 at 21:08

Jordan

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