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shellunixshksh

syntax error operand expected (error token is "-") in shell script

Inside the script there is one error i am getting as syntax error operand expected (error token is "-") at line 109

#!/bin/ksh
..............
while read file
do 
    upd_time=$((`date +%s`-`stat -c %Y ${file}`))     #At this line getting error
    file_nm=`basename "${file}"`
..................

In the above live getting error as syntax error operand expected (error token is "-").

Solution

  • You are trying to call stat when file doesn't have a value:

    $ unset file
$ stat -c %Y $file
stat: missing operand
Try 'stat --help' for more information.

    If you correctly quote $file, you'll get a slightly better error message:

    $ stat -c %Y "$file"
stat: cannot stat '': No such file or directory

    If you aren't positive about the contents of your input file, try verifying that $file actually contains an existing file before calling stat:

    while IFS= read -r file
do 
    [ -e "$file" ] || continue

    upd_time=$(( $(date +%s) - $(stat -c %Y "$file") ))
    file_nm=$(basename "$file")
    ...
done