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This should be a relatively simple question. I am trying to pass multiple files through an executable program in a loop. I have tried multiple strategies (storing in an array, etc.) but the file name does not seem to be recognized as a variable. The error I am getting is: No such file or directory.

The outline of my latest attempt:

FILES=path/*/*

for f in $FILES
do
./function -input $f 
done

I am working in a bash shell.

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  • 2
    So, what part of the script gives that error? Bash should show you a line number. Also, you speak of a function, but ./function looks more like an executable program. (function by itself would be shell syntax for defining a function) – ilkkachu Nov 30 '17 at 17:22
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    You should double quote the file path as it can contain whitespace ./function -input "$f". Try running the script with set -xv to see how the variables are really populated. – choroba Nov 30 '17 at 17:29
  • You should edit the question to include the necessary information that ikkachu asked about. It's not enough to say that "nothing seems to be working". – Anthony Geoghegan Nov 30 '17 at 17:57
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Instead of using a plain variable to store a glob expansion sequence, recommend using a proper array and enable shell globbing option globstar to populate files in all sub-directories

shopt -s globstar nullglob
file_list=(path/**/*)

and use a loop over the array to process on each file

for file in "${file_list[@]}"; do
    printf '%s\n' "$file"
    # Your other actions on file goes here
done
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