Why I always get a syntax error in bash script

Question

I have the following function in bash, who was previously in the case part of a switch, but no matter where I put it I always get a syntax error

    do_start(){
    if[f $PIDFILE]; then
    echo "supervisord already running: $PIDFILE" exit 1 
    fi
    log_begin_msg "Starting Supervisor daemon manager..."
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $SUPERVISORD -- $OPTS || log_end_msg 1
    log_end_msg 0
    }

and I get:

    runScript.sh: Syntax error: "then" unexpected (expecting "}")

I don't know what is going on please help

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-07 19:46:06Z

2

Spaces around [ and ] are needed and I think you meant -f to check if this is a file.

You need to replace:

if[f $PIDFILE];

by:

if [ -f "$PIDFILE" ];

OR better (since you're using BASH)

if [[ -f "$PIDFILE" ]];

answered May 7, 2014 at 19:46

anubhava

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2 Comments

ocespedes Over a year ago

I can't believe that a space could do such damage, thank you!

anubhava Over a year ago

Yes BASH/shell syntax is pretty rigid on use of spaces and quotes.

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