`if' is not matched - message in shell script

[Christian Vollmar]

Hi gurus,

I am quite new to hp-ux and have the following problem:
I try using a simple if then else fi loop in a shell script under HP-UX 10.20
when I copy and past the code in a shell window everything works:

# if [ -f /home/vanadm/checkspace ]
> then
> echo yes
> else
> echo no
> fi
no

but when I try to run it as shell script (the code above saved in /home/vanadm/iftest) I get two errors:

1.
if the first script line contains a: #!/sbin/sh or #!/usr/bin/sh
I get:
# /home/vanadm/iftest
script interpreter "/usr/bin/sh" not found
sh: /home/vanadm/iftest: not found.


2.
if I remove the #!/xxx line the script is executed and returns:
# /home/vanadm/iftest
/home/vanadm/iftest: Syntax error at line 1 : `if' is not matched.

I am root, all files are rwxrwxrwx, and /usr/bin/sh _is_there_ ! ;-)
This `if' is not matched. drives me crazy. I tried the if [ xxx ] and the if test xxx syntax with no difference
I tried using multiple lines as above and a one-liner (if ; then ; else ; fi) - with no difference too

What specific Posix-Shell problem do I miss? (however, the problem remains the same using csh)

Thanks for any help

Christian Vollma

[Ian Dennison_1]

Christian,

Can you put the entire listing of the script in a posting?

We can then have a look at the actual code. My personal style for testing conditions such as file existing is to use double square brackets - however I do not know if that affects the result you get.

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[john korterman]

Hi Christian,
the unmatched if-error indicates that the shell cannot "see" the rest of the if- sentence, in particular not the "fi". It probably derives from your cut and paste where you probably paste some garbage into the script as well. Could you please try and write it manually in a fresh file?

regards,
John K.

[Tom Geudens]

Hi Christian,
That is indeed strange ... the same script seems to work for me.
I've attached it. Can you execute it with
sh -x iftest.sh
and post the output ?

Regards,
Tom

[UNIX Engr]

Try using #!/bin/sh as your first line. The specific code your referenced looks good enough.

Craig

[Christian Vollmar]

Hi Ian,

whow, thats a response time!

The complete code is stored in /home/vanadm/iftest:

if [ -f /home/vanadm/checkspace ]
then
echo yes
else
echo no
fi

I have just tried double brackets an things changed to

' is not expected.rror at line 2 : `

(No mistyping, this is an exact paste from the shell window!)
There still seems to be a syntax problem!?!!

The problem does not depend on the condition I test, I tried several tests.

regs n thnx

Christian

[Christian Vollmar]

Hi Tom & John

I have just used Toms script in a fresh file (and my editor shows that there are no foreign characters or other garbage)
Here is the result:

# sh -x iftest.sh
+ [ -f /home/sys/checkspace ]
iftest.sh: test: A ] character is missing.
+
iftest.sh[4]: ^M: not found.
+ echo no
no
#

Any more ideas?

[Tom Geudens · Accepted solution]

Hi Christian,
You need to ftp the script to your server as ASCII, not binary. The ^M is a typical conversion error.

Regards,
Tom

[Yogeeraj_1]

hi,

try to do a ux2dos on the script and try again.

dos2ux outfile


regards
Yogeeraj

[john korterman]

Hi again,
can you confirm that you actually typed the code manually?
Sorry, I have to ask, but your last response hints that you did not.

regards,
John K.

[Yogeeraj_1]

oops!
sorry should have said "dos2ux"

dos2ux iftest2

[Christian Vollmar]

Hi Tom

the good message is: Is was the ftp-transfer!
the bad one ist that i didnt think about this first.
I never had problems with this before and the "tranfer mode auto" button in my ftp client always worked well - until yesterday

Thanks for opening my eyes ;-) This has saved my weekend - enjoy yours!

Is there a way to detect such problems in a file, cat and more showed the correct code?

[Ian Dennison_1]

OK if you want to strip out the control chars, you can also do a 'strings' command of the file.

strings chartest1 >chartest2

Does any conditional work? How about a numeric test?

export TEST=1
if (( $TEST == 1 ))
then
print "test is one"
else
print "test not one"
fi

I would be tempted to look at environment variables and the shell you are using. Can you tell us which shell you are logged in as, and what the output of the 'env' statement is?

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Robin Wakefield]

Hi Christian,

Use the view command (readonly vi) - that will show you the ^M character.

Rgds, Robin.

[Rodney Hills]

If you used "vi" to edit the file it would show any "control" characters including ^M.

-- Rod Hills

[Darrell Allen]

Hi Christian,

Sounds like you are editing your scripts / files on a PC then transferring them to UNIX. This is common for new UNIX users. If so, I suggest you bite the bullet and learn vi. It's not the world's most user-friendly text editor, especially if you're used to a word processor on your PC, however it's available on every "UNIX like" system whether you use a GUI or not.

Darrell

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Christian:

Yet another way to view control characters in a file is with 'cat -vt'. A carriage return shows as ^M and a tab character appears as ^I.

A useful reference is 'man ascii(5)'.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Christian Vollmar]

You got me!
Indeed I edited the files on an PC and transferred them to the HP - this worked fine for all the etc/*s and other config files I had to edit during the last weeks.
I even started with vi and use it every time when i am at the HP-box, but it runs a EEG-recording software 24/7 and is occupied by a technician most time, so I hav to use telnet. And vi causes problems with my telnet client (CRT for Win) - so I used a Win-Editor with built-in ftp-client.

Well at least I am now aware of the problem - strange that it didnt appear earlier ;-)

Thanks to all of you and enjoy your weekend

Christia

[Rodney Hills]

Many systems will ignore a trailing ^M, but I would recommend you go back and fix those /etc files anyway... Just in case...

my 2 cents

-- Rod Hills

[Tom Geudens]

Hi Christian,
I noticed you're pretty new to the forums. May I point out the following link ?
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x022718276953d61190040090279cd0f9,00.html

This explains (amongst other things) about the points system.

Tom