Simple Bash scripting

Question

I'm trying to get to grips with Bash scripting via Cygwin. My script is about as simple as it gets.

I change the directory to the root of my C drive, and print the new location.

#!/usr/bin/bash 
cd /cygdrive/c
pwd

is saved in the file chdir.sh in my home directory. I then call ./chdir.sh from the bash prompt. This results in the error

: No such file or directorygdrive/c
/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/rcotton

I definitely have a C drive, and the command cd /cygdrive/c works when I call it directly from the bash prompt.

I realise that this problem is likely stupidly simple; please can you tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Answer 1

Just in case you have edited your script with an editor which is not part of the Cygwin environment (e.g., anything like 'Notepad*', 'WordPad', etc.): convert your script to Unix-lineendings via the 'dos2unix' tool.

The script itself is absolutely correct, no need for any / or \ changes. The error message

: No such file or directorygdrive/c

leads me to think of problems with the lineending since \r\n (Windows line ending). Just in case you do not have 'dos2unix' installed:

tr -d \\r < win.txt > unix.txt

or

sed -e 's/$/\r/' < unix.txt > win.txt

Answer 2

Are you sure you're using forward slash, and not backslash, in your cd command? Your problem would be symptomatic of mistaking these two.

Try these variants if just a single forward slash produces is indeed there and produces this weird error:

cd //cygdrive//c

or

cd \\cygdrive\\c

Answer 3

Try #!/usr/bin/bash.exe and see if that makes a difference. Either works on my Cygwin install, but the file is actually named bash.exe.

Answer 4

TO: ttarchala (and Mr Cotton)

In cygwin, //start1/path_2/stuff/long triggers UNC hack mode, which treats start1 as a SMB server with share path_2. This is not what was intended.

This will sometimes bite you in certain shell scripts that are shared with UNIX, where multiple forward slashes are always coalesced to a single slash. In cygwin, multiple forward slashes are coalesced EXCEPT if it's the beginning one, which is UNC trigger mode.