Recording name and source path of a file in a persistent storage in bash

Question

I'm trying to write a backup and restore function for automation.

I'm struggling to populate the dictionary with path information.

Here's a snippet from the backup function.

    FILE="path/to/file"
    BASENAME=$(basename $FILE)

    key="$BASENAME"
    value="$FILE"
    test_dict[$key]=$value

    echo ${test_dict[*]}

I get this

    bash: package.json: syntax error: invalid arithmetic operator (error token is ".json")

This is my first bash script and I'm not really fussed about what storage type I'm using, be it array, dictionary, etc... all I care about is to keep track of which file belongs where.

This is my first bash script so sorry if this is a trivial question/error on my side.

I'd really appreciate your input on this.

Cheers :)

Edit: test_dict is declared with:

    declare -a test_dict

You don't say which line causes the error. Also you don't show how `test_dict` is definied and initialized. — user1934428, Sep 14 '21 at 11:45
@Jetchisel "bash: declare: -A: invalid option", in the example above I used `declare -a test_dict` to declare the dictionary — muiraie, Sep 14 '21 at 12:30
@WilliamPursell I have quotes from declaring the strings about the dic. Either way, I tried adding them but I get the same error — muiraie, Sep 14 '21 at 12:31
@user1934428 the error is caused here `test_dict[$key]=$value` — muiraie, Sep 14 '21 at 12:32
Perhaps the problem is simply that you are actually running a shell that does not support arrays. — William Pursell, Sep 14 '21 at 12:34
@WilliamPursell I don't really care if its a dictionary or something else if you have any other ideas — muiraie, Sep 14 '21 at 12:36
@muriaie: Did you declare the variable as **associative** array (i.e. dictionary)? Otherwise you will get an error if you use it in this way. — user1934428, Sep 14 '21 at 12:56
@user1934428 i feel stupid to say that my bash didn't support associative arrays, I updated it and now it all works. Thanks! — muiraie, Sep 14 '21 at 13:47
@user1934428 `GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin20) Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.` — muiraie, Sep 15 '21 at 09:12

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '21 at 13:46

I got into all of this mess bc my shell won’t accept declare -A, which is to declare it as associative.

running bash --version spits out:

GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin20)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

all I had to do was to update bash to the latest version. For that I used: brew update && brew install bash

Now my code works just fine.

M :)

Recording name and source path of a file in a persistent storage in bash

1 Answers1