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Asked: 2020-10-15 01:38:05 +0800 CST

Use the '*' in shell script

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I am trying to run a command example:

sudo mv /home/vaishnavi/Downloads/*.ttc /home/vaishnavi/Downloads/*.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts/ms_fonts/

It works fine in the terminal, but when I try to add this in a shell script (.sh) I get an error saying:

mv: cannot stat '/home/vaishnavi/Downloads/*.ttf': No such file or directory

Simply, I want to move all the files of .ttf and .ttc type to /usr/local/share/fonts/ms_fonts/, in this case. Frankly speaking, I am not so expert in shell scripts. Please explain to me what wrong I did and also an alternative to achieve my expected results.

My sample script:

sudo mv /home/vaishnavi/Downloads/*.ttc /home/vaishnavi/Downloads/*.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts/ms_fonts/  
...

exit 0
scripts command-line bash mv

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You'll get this error if there are no *.ttf files there. By default, if no files match a glob pattern, then the pattern itself remains in the command. Turn this off with the bash nullglob shell option

    To be a bit safer, verify there are actually some files to move:

    #!/usr/bin/env bash
...
shopt -s nullglob
# store files in an array
files=( /home/vaishnavi/Downloads/*.{ttc,ttf} )
# and if the array is not empty, move the files.
if (( ${#files[@]} > 0 )); then
    sudo mv -t /usr/local/share/fonts/ms_fonts/ "${files[@]}" 
fi
    • 3