Bash array: Unexpected Syntax error

arrays, bash, shell, syntax

Solution

Variable assignments can't have a space around the `=` sign:

array=( /a/b/  /c/d )
     ^--no spaces

are you sure?

marc@panic:~$ array =(a b)      
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
marc@panic:~$ array= (a b)  
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
marc@panic:~$ array = (a b)
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
marc@panic:~$ array=(a b)  
marc@panic:~$ echo ${array[1]}
b

Problem

I am writing this simple bash script as follows. ``` #!/bin/bash array=( /home/abc/Downloads/something.bat /home/abc/Downloads/smb.conf ) echo ${array[@]} ``` I expected it to print all the names of the files in the array. But I get this error instead: ``` test.sh: 3: Syntax error: "(" unexpected ``` If I change the declaration of array to ``` array = {/home/abc/Downloads/something.bat /home/abc/Downloads/smb.conf} ``` this error goes away but I still have new errors ``` test.sh: 3: array: not found test.sh: 4: Bad substitution ``` How can I resolve this issue? This is my first time in shell programming so I am unable to fix the issues myself. RESOLVED: I was executing it as sh test.sh but I forgot I had to execute it as bash test.sh

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