For loop in Cygwin bash shell followed by “>”

Question

When I type the following command in a cygwin bash shell:

for i in $(ls) do echo $i done

I get a \">\" asking me to keep typing, as opposed

Answer 1

You need to separate your for, do and done statements.. Try this:

for i in $(ls); do echo $i; done

You can also separate the statements with newlines. For exmaple:

cygwin$ for i in $(ls)
> do
> echo $i
> done

Answer 2

Your for loop is still waiting for the semicolon or newline that terminates the list of values. So far, your loop with set i to the list of words produced by ls, the word do, the word echo, the words produced by the expansion of the current value of i, and the word done.

The > is the so-called secondary prompt, which indicates that the shell is still waiting for input to complete the command started by for.