bash backup script error

Question

So I'm writing a simple backup script that when called will either back up a specific file or all the files in my current directory into my backup directory. This is my script

#!/bin/bash

#verify if $1 is empty, if so, copy all content to backup directory

if [ -z "$1" ]
then

    $files=ls
    #Looping through files
    for file in $files
    do
        cp $file ../backup/
    done      
 #else copy files specified 

else

$files=ls $1

    #Looping through files 
    for file in $files
    do
        cp $file ../backup/
    done
fi

and the only error I'm getting is:

./backup: line 7: =ls: command not found

I'm not sure why the script won't recognize ls as a command. Any ideas?

Kent · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-29 22:00:04Z

3

to assign a variable, you don't need the dollar sign:

files=foo

to save the output of an command to a var, you need do:

files=$(ls)

or

files=$(ls /path/to/some/dir)

answered Sep 29, 2013 at 22:00

Kent

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Comments

HapKoM · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-29 22:04:07Z

0

I see two mistakes:

When you initialize variable "files" you should not prepend it with "$" symbol
Command ls should be placed in back quotes (`):

This is a short example:

#!/bin/bash

files=`ls`

for file in $files
do
    echo "file: $file"
done

answered Sep 29, 2013 at 22:04

HapKoM

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Comments

el_tenedor · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-29 22:05:35Z

0

You should try putting the ls into ` marks - better, the back quote. Like this:

files=`ls`

Here a little background. Check this page for more information about quotation marks in the shell environment:

The back quote is not used for quoting characters. That character is used for command substitution, where the characters between them are executed by the shell and the results is inserted on that line.

Example:

echo the date is `date`

edited Sep 29, 2013 at 22:05

answered Sep 29, 2013 at 22:00

el_tenedor

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