FOR loop nested in WHILE in bash/shell

Question

I want to get proper output from FOR loop inside WHILE. When i'm using command like this all is OK:

for i in `find ./ -name "*.processed" -mtime +0`; do echo "$i is COOL"; done; 

Output:
1.processed is COOL
2.processed is COOL ...

But, when i'm using this into bash/shell script, find put a list of all files with proper mask into variable (not one by one). Note, redirect "echo $i is COOL" to "wc -l" returns number of all files, damn. See following: Entries of confif file like:

/export/home/.../ProcessedDumps;*.processed

All paths are full paths.

#!/bin/bash

CONF_FILE=$1
DAYS_OLD=0
counter=0
IFS=";"

if [ "$1" = "-h" -o "$1" = "-help" -o "$#" -ne "1" ]; then
    echo "Just archive your files easy!"
    echo "Usage: `basename $0` /path_to_conf/config.cfg" && echo "Exit!"
    exit 1
fi

echo "#########################"
date '+Date: %Y.%m.%d %T'
echo

while read LOG_DIR MASK
do
    cd $LOG_DIR
    echo "Dir changed to `pwd`"
    echo "Searching with mask \"$MASK\""
    for i in `find . -name "$MASK"`
    do
    echo "$i is COOL"
    echo "test"
    done
done < $CONF_FILE

echo
echo "Total archived files: $counter"

echo
date '+Date: %Y.%m.%d %T'

Output:
1.processed
2.processed
...
n.processed is COOL
test

Is bash provides nested loops with different kinds (inner FOR, outer WHILE). Have any ideas?

I don't see any problem with nested loops. It looks like the output of find isn't being split so you're only foring over one thing. Is IFS set? — hobbs
– hobbs, Commented Dec 5, 2013 at 7:53
I'm confused... Shouldn't find ./ -name "*.processed -mtime +0" have been find ./ -name "*.processed" -mtime +0 ? (quotes only around file name...) — anishsane
– anishsane, Commented Dec 5, 2013 at 7:56

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-05 14:03:18Z

1

Rather than setting IFS globally, which is interfering with your for loop, set it locally for the read in the while loop:

while IFS=';' read LOG_DIR MASK; do
    cd $LOG_DIR
    echo "Dir changed to `pwd`"
    echo "Searching with mask \"$MASK\""
    for i in `find . -name "$MASK"`
    do
        echo "$i is COOL"
        echo "test"
    done
done < $CONF_FILE

answered Dec 5, 2013 at 14:03

chepner

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alexgirao · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-05 10:05:37Z

0

the problem seems to be with the shell expansion, the follow excerpt worked as expected in my test here

echo logdir '"*.c"' | while read LOG_DIR MASK
do
  MASK=${MASK#'"'};
  MASK=${MASK%'"'};
  find -name "$MASK";
  for i in `find -name "$MASK"`; do
    echo "[$i]";
  done
done

EDIT: the IFS also has an important role if the filename has whitespaces, as noted by hobbs, in this case, one can use

echo logdir '"*.png"' | while read LOG_DIR MASK
do
  MASK=${MASK#'"'};
  MASK=${MASK%'"'};
  SAVEIFS=$IFS
  IFS='!'
  for i in `find -printf '%h/%f!' -name "$MASK"`; do
    ls -l "$i"
  done
  IFS=$SAVEIFS
done

edited Dec 5, 2013 at 10:05

answered Dec 5, 2013 at 9:30

alexgirao

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