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bashsudonohup

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'

I do the following at my Mac terminal:

sudo for i in `seq 0 9`; do nohup my_command > log_$i.txt & done

but I receive the following error:

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'

What's the problem and how can I fix it?

P.S.

I tested some of the suggestions of people here and here they are:

1)

(base) user@SERVER:/directory$ sudo for i in `seq 0 9`; do nohup my_command > log_$i.txt &; done

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'

2)

(base) user@SERVER:/directory$ sudo for i in `seq 0 9`; do nohup my_command > log_$i.txt ; done

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'

3)

(base) user@SERVER:/directory$ sudo for i in `seq 0 9`; do nohup my_command > log_$i.txt done

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'

4)

(base) user@SERVER:directory$ sudo bash -c for i in `seq 0 9`; do nohup my_command > log_$i.txt & done

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'
Solution

  • Running the for via sudo doesn't work as sudo expects a command. You can instead run the loop via bash:

    sudo bash -c 'for i in {0..9}; do nohup command > log_$i.txt & done'

    You wouldn't need to use seq command as bash has the {0..9} to support "range" loops.

    See bash job control for more info on & (which puts the "job" - the command you run - in the background).