Bash function argument returns error "command not found"

Question

I have this function in a bash script, to create a new jekyll post; but it returns the argument as command not found. Here's the script:

 function new_post () {
     if [ -z "$1" ]
     then
         read -p "Post Title:"  TITLE
     else
         TITLE= "$1"
     fi
     FILE=$( echo $TITLE | tr A-Z a-z | tr ' ' _ )
     echo -e '---\nlayout: post\ntitle: '$TITLE'\npublished: false\n---\n' > $(date '+%Y-%m-%d-')"$FILE"'.md'
 }

But whenever I try to run it it returns:

$>new_post "Hello World"
-bash: Hello World: command not found

It appears to be trying to run the argument as a command.

I even tried this and got the same result

$>TITLE= "Hello World" && echo -e ---layout: post\ntitle: "$TITLE"\n--- 
-bash: Hello World: command not found

Can anybody tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Perhaps you meant to write `TITLE="$1"` - that space really matters! — Toby Speight, Jun 18 '19 at 14:42
@TobySpeight that's what the accepted answer suggested in 2012 — JKirchartz, Jun 19 '19 at 19:07
so it does - it's a pity the review UI doesn't show answers... — Toby Speight, Jun 19 '19 at 20:17

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 02 '12 at 17:28

23

It may be the space in TITLE= "$1" that causes the error. Try with TITLE="$1"

answered Sep 02 '12 at 17:28

phsym

1,364
10
20

4

Definitely is. `VAR=VALUE PROGRAM` defines a variable `VAR` for the environment of `PROGRAM` only. In the OP's case the shell interprets `"$1"` as a command and `TITLE=` as the definition of an (empty) environment variable for it. – Ansgar Wiechers Sep 02 '12 at 17:34

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 29 '18 at 09:49

In my case:

echo "Deploy of `$1` to `$2` project? (Y/N)"

the issue was also present. When I removed [``] it's gone. Not sure if you pasted a complete script but beware double quotes for args.

Similar answer https://askubuntu.com/questions/180320/bash-script-program-with-parameters-as-a-single-variable-command-not-found

Bash function argument returns error "command not found"

2 Answers2