finding file with for loop

[Leo The Cat]

Hi All

A small question here.

I've no files under /tmp
My script is something like that

cd /tmp
for file in *.bak *.txt *.cat *.pll ; do
cp $file /logs
done

Execution Result is
cp: *.bak: A file or directory in the path name does not exist.
cp: *.txt: A file or directory in the path name does not exist.
cp: *.cat: A file or directory in the path name does not exist.
cp: *.pll: A file or directory in the path name does not exist.

I'd like to avoid this because I don't undertsand why we enter inside the loop. I've no files ! Where is the mistake ?

Bests Regards
Den

[Leo The Cat]

Of course I could use

for file in *.bak *.txt *.cat *.pll ; do
if test -f $file; then
cp $file /logs
fi
done

But ...

[Yogeeraj_1]

Hi den,

>I'd like to avoid this because I don't undertsand why we enter inside the loop. I've no files ! Where is the mistake ?

It will never enter the loop only if the check condition is NULL. Here you are specifying static values.

e.g.

for file in $(ls -1 *.txt) ....

would perform better

hope this helps!

kind regards
yogeeraj

[Leo The Cat]

Hi

I've always an error



___9@cerbere001(/su01/upload) $ for file in $(ls -1 *.bak *.txt *.cat *.pll ) ; do
> echo $file
> done
ls: 0653-341 The file *.bak does not exist.
ls: 0653-341 The file *.txt does not exist.
ls: 0653-341 The file *.cat does not exist.
ls: 0653-341 The file *.pll does not exist.
___9@cerbere001(/su01/upload) $



Bests Regards
Den

[Peter Nikitka]

Hi,

1) This method to suppress the message at cp (my prefered method) will ignore directories, dangling symlinks - just everything that is NOT a plain file:

cd /tmp
for file in *.bak *.txt *.cat *.pll
do
[ -f $file ] || continue
cp $file /logs
done

2) To suppress messages at 'ls' just redirect stderr. The option '-1' (=one=) is useless when not set having a tty, I recommend '-d' because there may be directories matching the pattern:
for file in $(ls -d *.bak *.txt *.cat *.pll 2>/dev/null)
do echo $file
done

mfG Peter

[Peter Nikitka · Accepted solution]

Sorry - misspelt 2):

2) To suppress messages at 'ls' just redirect stderr. The option '-1' (=one=) is useless when
not having a tty,
I recommend '-d' because there may be directories matching the pattern:

for file in $(ls -d *.bak *.txt *.cat *.pll 2>/dev/null)
do echo $file
done

mfG Peter

[Steven Schweda]

> Where is the mistake ?

Asking about AIX in an HP-UX forum?

Not using "find"?

[Leo The Cat]

Hi Steven

good. For this effectively Y was for a while with my old friend AIX.

I don't want to use find because I don't want to go on sub-directories... but we have perhaps any find option(s) to avoid search on sub directories...

Thank you very much to All, I've now the solution.

Bests Regards
Den

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Den:

If you replace your 'cp' with 'echo' you will see that each value in the list is used as an un-evaulated argument to 'cp'. That is, since glob() doesn't find anything for "*.txt", it is left as "*.txt", generating a "no file" message from 'cp'.

I would do what Peter suggested in scripts like this:

...
[ -f ${FILE} ] && cp ${FILE} /logs
done

Steven has a sharp eye! Your script is *really* running on AIX and not HP-UX. While that doesn't matter in terms of the problem or of the solution, the error messages are different.

HP-UX reports:

cp: cannot access *.txt: No such file or directory

...whereas AIX gives:

cp: *.txt: A file or directory in the path name does not exist.

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature... :-)

Regards!

...JRF...

[Leo The Cat]

It' s ok. Thanks to All

[Steven Schweda]

> I don't want to use find because I don't
> want to go on sub-directories... but we
> have perhaps any find option(s) to avoid
> search on sub directories...

Easy with GNU "find". Previous Forum
discussions showing exactly how should be
easy to find.

So, you prefer the command-line-too-long
problems which arise from careless use of
wildcard file specifications (like "*")?


> Steven has a sharp eye!

Not really.

> ls: 0653-341 The file *.bak does not exist.

I've only seen one UNIX (-like) OS which
has useful error codes like this, and that's
AIX. (Very startling for a VMS user to find
a UNIX OS which showed some evidence of
having been designed, instead of just cobbled
together, hence memorable.)