unable to pass read input to cat path

Question

New to bash here. I am trying to pass a read input to a filepath for a cat command.

read -p "enter folder" folderid
read -p "enter port (optional)if not required press 0:" port
if [$folderid -ne 0 && $port -ne 0];then
  new_interface=$(cat /var/abc/def/xyz_$fileid/randomfile)
  echo "$new_interface"
fi

Sample input for folderid: 134567

I get an error stating:

-bash: [134567: command not found

Not sure what am I doing wrong, tried different things nothing seems to work.

Inian · Answer 1 · 2016-12-27T15:27:46.793

1

Add a space after the [, and the complete error free script should be

read -p "enter folder" folderid
read -p "enter port (optional)if not required press 0:" port

if [ "$folderid" -ne 0 ] && [ "$port" -ne 0 ]; then
    new_interface="$(</var/abc/def/xyz_$fileid/randomfile)"
    echo "$new_interface"
fi

If folderid is expected to be a string use

if [ ! -z "$folderid" ] && [ "$port" -ne "0" ];then

Also, remove the useless-use-of-cat in

new_interface=$(cat /var/abc/def/xyz_$fileid/randomfile)

to just

new_interface="$(</var/abc/def/xyz_$fileid/randomfile)"

edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:27

answered Dec 27 '16 at 14:55

Inian

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thanks! but the error changed now: – Vbr Dec 27 '16 at 15:03
-bash: [: missing `]' – Vbr Dec 27 '16 at 15:04
@user3055304: Refer my update which solve your problem. – Inian Dec 27 '16 at 15:28

Jens · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-27T15:41:18.237

1

The shell's tokenizer is white-space sensitive. Words are split at white-space and special characters such as ;, &, && and others. Use

if [ $folderid -ne 0 -a $port -ne 0 ]; then

edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:41

answered Dec 27 '16 at 14:55

Jens

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unable to pass read input to cat path

2 Answers2