Problem with bash scripting

Question

I'm terrible with bash scripting, and need some help with the following:

#!/bin/bash

if [ -e Pretty* ];then
ncftpput -R -DD -v -u xbmc -p xbmc 192.168.1.100 /home/xbmc/TV/Pretty_Little_Liars/ Pretty*
else
echo "No new folders"
fi

find -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \;

Problem here is the ncftpput line.. if I just do a simple [ echo "working" ] instead, everything is OK, but when I try the ncftpput-line it just gives me [ line 5: [: too many arguments ]

the ncftpput command alone works fine..

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can't use globbing with -e inside [] because it's likely to return more than one result which will give you a too many arguments error.

You can try:

shopt -s nullglob
if [[ -n "$(echo Pretty*)" ]]

or

if [[ "$(echo Pretty*)" != "Pretty*" ]]

Also, use indenting, spaces and line continuation to make your code more readable:

#!/bin/bash

shopt -s nullglob
if [[ -n "$(echo Pretty*)" ]]; then
    ncftpput -R -DD -v -u xbmc -p xbmc 192.168.1.100 \
        /home/xbmc/TV/Pretty_Little_Liars/ Pretty*
else
    echo "No new folders"
fi

find -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \;

Answer 2

Try it.

#!/bin/bash -x

if [ -e "Pretty*" ];then
`ncftpput -R -DD -v -u xbmc -p xbmc 192.168.1.100 /home/xbmc/TV/Pretty_Little_Liars/ Pretty*`
else
echo "No new folders"
fi

find -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \;

Answer 3

Well, if it's complaining of too many arguments, break it with a for.

#!/bin/bash

if [ -e Pretty* ];then
   for FILE in Pretty*
   do
       ncftpput -R -DD -v -u xbmc -p xbmc 192.168.1.100 /home/xbmc/TV/Pretty_Little_Liars/ "$FILE"
   done
else
   echo "No new folders"
fi

find -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \;

Using the "" around $FILE will ensure that files with spaces on their name don't do anything unexpected.