Re: bug using for i in ...

[Soenke Petersen]

aln00@udcast.com wrote:
> 
> Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
> Machine: i386
> OS: linux-gnu
> Compiler: gcc
> Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i386' 
> -DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i386-pc-linux-gnu' 
> -DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64  -I. 
> -I/usr/include -I/home/debian/src/bash/bash-2.05 
> -I/home/debian/src/bash/bash-2.05/include 
> -I/home/debian/src/bash/bash-2.05/lib -I/usr/include -g -O2
> uname output: Linux leda 2.2.19i #2 Mon Jun 11 22:55:44 CEST 2001 i686 unknown
> Machine Type: i386-pc-linux-gnu
> 
> Bash Version: 2.05
> Patch Level: 0
> Release Status: release
> 
> Description:
>         Using:
>  for i in list; do echo $i; done
>         returns an error when the list is empty.
> 
> Repeat-By:
> 
> 0-leda$ for i in  1 2 ; do echo $i; done
> 1
> 2
> 
> 0-leda$ for i in  ; do echo $i; done
> bash: syntax error near unexpected token `;'

Sorry, it's not a bug, it's bad programming style.
You have to check wether the list is empty or not:

>list="a b"; [ "$list" = "" ] || for i in $list; do echo $i; done
a
b
>

> list=""; [ "$list" = "" ] || for i in $list; do echo $i; done
>