5th argument doesn't work!!

>> is there any limitation in number of arguments we pass in shell? <<
there is no limitation, you can write arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5 argN
so i dont think the problem is in the number of arguments, i think its in the last variable you did, i mean $e .
in the function body you can call the argument as $1 for arg1 , $2 for arg2 $3 for arg3 and so on, try to not use $e and use $5 and see if the argument is empty or not.
##---------
this is a fast example i did for 5 arguments try it, its work
function doit() {
      echo $1 $2 $3 $4 $5
}
doit "My" "Name" "is" "q" "shakur"
##---------

>> I have a script that was working just fine but now I found there is an error due to a pass..... <<
in your function example the caller is before the body of the function i think this will give you a command not found
but i think you write it here just for showing us an example and in your script the caller is after the function body

good luck,

Hi q_shakur,

Yes, exactly I go with $1 and ... $5 always and what I had posted was just an example. Anyway they are all valid except $5! it used to work just fine. I check the caller function and the fifth argument has a valid value but for some reasons when it gets to the function (here func1() ) the value gets lost!

Thanks

did you maybe check against a  value:
if [ $5 = "" ] ?
cause you should check with ==
you should put the script for our better understanding

Hello,

In caller function I call:

ChkMediaSize  $DES_DIR  $SRC_DIR  $1    $REMOTE_MACHINE   $2

This is where error happens: (Called function)

in following function the $2 used to had a valid value but not it is empty so when it gets to  [ $5 -eq 1 ] causes error.


function ChkMediaSize
{
  #passing source path, dest path and conn type (local/remote)
                if [ $5 -eq 1 ];
                then
                        #restore case
                        echo ""
                        ChkMediaSize  $DES_DIR  $SRC_DIR $1 $REMOTE_MACHINE  $2
                else
                        #backup case
                        #ChkMediaSize $SRC_DIR  $DES_DIR         $1 $REMOTE_MACHINE $2
                        ChkMediaSize $SRC_DIR  $DES_DIR  $1  $2
                fi

        etc .....
}

That's a very bad way to handle parameter in a function.

When you call ChkMediaSize with your five parameters, the following is se

$1 = $DES_DIR
$2 = $SRC_DIR
$3 = global $1
$4 = $REMOTE_MACHINE
$5 = global $2

That makes it confusing and conflicting.

Additionally you have a recursive function with no way of exiting (unless that's in the code you are not showing).

I think the whole code needs a big re-think and re-write to make it much clearer and more robust.
       

Tintin,

thanks for your advice so what do you suggest? as far as global arguments?

Tintin,

Now, I see what you mean. No I had made a mistake when I have been doing copy/paste from my code. That is not recursive at all. for some reasons I have type the same name for the function as ChkMediaSize() by mistake!

Sorry!

this is my code:


caller is here:

                if [ $5 -eq 1 ];
                then
                        #restore case
                        echo ""
                        ChkMediaSize  $DES_DIR  $SRC_DIR $1 $REMOTE_MACHINE  $2
                else
                        #backup case
                        #ChkMediaSize $SRC_DIR  $DES_DIR         $1 $REMOTE_MACHINE $2
                        ChkMediaSize $SRC_DIR  $DES_DIR  $1  $2
                fi

                ..........


function ChkMediaSize()
{
      # here I use those arguments to check the available room (using \df , -k  ) and checking what size is going    to be backedup or restored using (du)

}

The problem is sovled.

I found out what the problem was. When the forth argument is empty (is read from a config file) the fifith one is assumed (shifted to left) as the forth one then the fifth one will be empty.

That's exactly what I suggested in my original post :-)

That's why you should always check for a valid number of args, eg:

function ChkMediaSize
{
  if [ $# -ne 5 ]
  then
       echo "Incorrect number of args" >&2
       exit 1
  fi

   ...
}