syntax error near unexpected token `echo'

Question

I am trying to execute the following code with an IP address as a parameter from the commandline; however I am getting an error saying - ": line 6: syntax error near unexpected token `echo' "

.

#!/bin/sh
echo $1;
declare -a values=$(ssh -q  jboss@$1 "ps -eo pcpu,pid,user | sort -r -k1 | less | grep jboss");
for value in ${values[*]} do
   echo $value;
done

Please can you help me rectify this error?

Note that you are missing a pair of parentheses for your array assignment: declare -a values=( $(ssh -q ... ) ). Whether or not the output of the remote command is parsed into the correct set of array elements is another question. Also, the less in your pipeline is unnecessary at best. — chepner
To safely iterate over the elements of an array, use "${values[@]}" -- with the quotes. See stackoverflow.com/a/12316565/7552. To create the array, you need to wrap the values in parentheses: declare -a values=( $(ssh ...) ). What you currently have is an array with one element, and that element is a string with words separated by whitespace. — glenn jackman

Guntram Blohm Guntram Blohm · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-18T18:59:51

Put a ; in front of the do, or put the do on a new line.

for value in ${values[*]}; do
  echo $value
done

The ; behind "echo $value" isn't needed except if you write the done directly behind it.

syntax error near unexpected token `echo'

1 Answers