bash: if condition problem

Question

trying to do some operations on all the files in the directory that end in .c (C files). The code is:

#!/bin/sh
clear
for file in *
do
    if [ $file="*.c" ]
    then
        echo $file
    fi
done
exit 0

doesn't work. it just lists all the files and directories.

you've a test problem not if ! see man test ; in terminal run "man test" — younes, 12 hours ago

chepner · Answer 1 · 2015-11-04 18:30:08Z

up vote 6 down vote

The condition on if is malformed, you're just checking that the string $file=*.c isn't empty. Try instead:

#!/bin/sh
clear
for file in *
do
    if [ "$file" = "*.c" ]
    then
        echo "$file"
    fi
done
exit 0

On the other hand, the comoding char '*' in this case is not functional, but it's interpreted to a string.

Try:

#!/bin/sh
clear
for file in *.c
do
    echo "$file"
done
exit 0

chepner
2,466617

answered 19 hours ago

Juan Antonio Clavero Garcia
1114

It most not be $file in the for statement. – Bananguin 18 hours ago

1

Only a single = for POSIX compliance. – phk 16 hours ago

... and put quotes around your variable substitutions i.e. "$file" – Murray Jensen 14 hours ago

The if condition still only be true for a file named *.c. It does not check if $file ends with .c, does it. – Bananguin 8 hours ago

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Bananguin · Answer 2 · 2015-11-04 08:56:32Z

Your test statement does not check if the file's suffix is .c. It checks (in most cases) if $file is equal to *.c, see test(1).

However, if you replaced your for statement to read

for file in *.c

the for statement would only be passed the files ending with .c so you don't have to check anymore.

ferdy · Answer 3 · 2015-11-04 17:36:52Z

up vote 0 down vote

Another one liner way would be the usage of find:

find . -name "*.c" | xargs echo

It depends on what you actually want to do with those files so that this helps you.

answered 10 hours ago

ferdy
1495

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3 Answers 3