Unable to set variables in bash script [duplicate]

Answer 1

Assignment in bash scripts cannot have spaces around the = and you probably want your date commands enclosed in backticks $():

#!/bin/bash
folder="ABC"
useracct='test'
day=$(date "+%d")
month=$(date "+%B")
year=$(date "+%Y")
folderToBeMoved="/users/$useracct/Documents/Archive/Primetime.eyetv"
newfoldername="/Volumes/Media/Network/$folder/$month$day$year"
ECHO "Network is $network" $network
ECHO "day is $day"
ECHO "Month is $month"
ECHO "YEAR is $year"
ECHO "source is $folderToBeMoved"
ECHO "dest is $newfoldername"
mkdir $newfoldername
cp -R $folderToBeMoved $newfoldername
if [-f $newfoldername/Primetime.eyetv]; then rm $folderToBeMoved; fi

With the last three lines commented out, for me this outputs:

Network is 
day is 16
Month is March
YEAR is 2010
source is /users/test/Documents/Archive/Primetime.eyetv
dest is /Volumes/Media/Network/ABC/March162010

Answer 2

here's your amended script

#!/bin/bash    
folder="ABC" #no spaces between assignment    
useracct='test'    
day=$(date "+%d") # use $() to assign return value of date command to variable    
month=$(date "+%B")     
year=$(date "+%Y")    
folderToBeMoved="/users/$useracct/Documents/Archive/Primetime.eyetv"    
newfoldername="/Volumes/Media/Network/$folder/$month$day$year"    
ECHO "Network is $network" $network    
ECHO "day is $day"    
ECHO "Month is $month"    
ECHO "YEAR is $year"    
ECHO "source is $folderToBeMoved"    
ECHO "dest is $newfoldername"    

mkdir "$newfoldername"    
cp -R "$folderToBeMoved" "$newfoldername"
if [ -f "$newfoldername/Primetime.eyetv" ]; then # <-- put a space at square brackets and quote your variables.
 rm "$folderToBeMoved";
fi

Answer 3

Five problems:

1. Don't put a space before or after the equal sign.
2. Use "$(...)" to get the output of a command as text.
3. [ is a command. Put a space between it and the arguments.
4. Commands are case-sensitive. You want echo.
5. Use double quotes around variables. rm "$folderToBeMoved"

Answer 4

folder = "ABC" tries to run a command named folder with arguments = and "ABC". The format of command in bash is:

command arguments separated with space

while assignment is done with:

variable=something

---

• In [ -f $newfoldername/Primetime.eyetv], [ is a command (test) and -f and $newfoldername/Primetime.eyetv] are two arguments. It expects a third argument (]) which it can't find (arguments must be separated with space) and thus will show error.
• [-f $newfoldername/Primetime.eyetv] tries to run a command [-f with argument $newfoldername/Primetime.eyetv]

Generally for cases like this, paste your code in shellcheck and see the feedback.