Bash trouble in for loop variable name

Question

I want to create a shell script in debian that:

creates a directory for each number from 1 to 12 = d1, d2, d3 , ..., d12.
creates the same text file inside every directory
changes a string inside the text file
downloads files using wget

(Create d1; copy links.txt and rename to d1.txt; change every number from 0 to 99 to 1. Then for d2, rename it to d2.txt, change every number to 2 ...the same for the 12).

#!/bin/bash
START=1
END=12
for ((i=START; i<=END; i++))
do
    mkdir d'$i'
    cp /home/user/script/links.txt /home/user/script/d'$i'.txt
    grep -rli '([0-99])' /home/user/script/d'$i'.txt | xargs -i@ sed -i 's/[0-99]/'$i'/g' @
    wget -i /home/user/script/d'$i'/d'$i'.txt
done

What do I need to change to make it work?

You should explain what is not working.

l'L'l
– l'L'l

2016-03-22 01:19:41 +00:00
Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 1:19 — l'L'l
– l'L'l, Commented Mar 22, 2016 at 1:19

Kurt Stutsman · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-22 01:21:34Z

1

Single quotes prevent variable substitution in strings. You should use double quotes instead. Also [0-99] doesn't do what you think. The character classes only match a single character at a time, so you're only looking for characters 0-9 there. I think this should do what you want:

#!/bin/bash
START=1
END=12
for ((i=START; i<=END; i++))
do
    mkdir d"$i"
    sed -r 's/([0-9]|[1-9][0-9])/'$i'/g' /home/user/script/links.txt > "/home/user/script/d$i/d$i.txt"
    wget -i "/home/user/script/d$i/d$i.txt"
done

answered Mar 22, 2016 at 1:21

Kurt Stutsman

4,05420 silver badges24 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Kaka Over a year ago

I was not using double quotes, and was creating the directory and not using it! Thank you!

Kaka Over a year ago

Strange, the [0-99] is working for me for the 0-12 range.

Kurt Stutsman Over a year ago

It will work sort of. It will match anything that has the characters 0 to 9 in it. That could be either 0, 50, 99, or even 9999999.

Cyrus Over a year ago

I suggest to replace mkdir d"$i" by mkdir "/home/user/script/d$i".

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Bash trouble in for loop variable name

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related