Error moving files in shell for-loop

Question

I am using the following shell code to move files from one location to another:

for i in [ test1 test2 test3]
do
  mv /home/usr/enabler/$i/*  /home/bin/enabler/consolidate
  echo "moved successfully!!!"
done

Running in the bash shell I get the error "Illegal file pattern: Unclosed character class near index 1". I want the loop to go to each folder test1, test2, test3 and move all files present in test1, test2, test3 in destination folder.

The square brackets don't seem to be at all useful here, why did you put those? Also take care to properly quote your variables. See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10067266/when-to-wrap-quotes-around-a-variable — tripleee, Apr 25 '17 at 13:26
single line: `mv /home/usr/enabler/{test1,test2,test3}/* /home/bin/enabler/consolidate` — Shakiba Moshiri, Apr 25 '17 at 13:46

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 27 '17 at 12:21

2

Fix your script that way:

for i in test1 test2 test3
do
  mv /home/usr/enabler/"$i"/*  /home/bin/enabler/consolidate
  echo "moved successfully!!!"
done

This is exactly that you want!!

edited Apr 27 '17 at 12:21

chepner

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answered Apr 25 '17 at 14:01

Moacir Petry

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Error moving files in shell for-loop

1 Answers1