"}" can only be used to close a block

Given this code:

function help_msg {
	echo "Wrong arguments" >&2
	echo "Usage:"
	echo "  $0 -s source -d destination"
	echo "Options:"
	echo "  -s  Source vault"
	echo "  -d  Destination vault"
}

I am getting this error:

file.sh:10:1: "}" can only be used to close a block

I am unsure how to fix this

What did you run exactly?. It's likely that you're trying to parse in POSIX mode when this is bash syntax.

I just ran shfmt <file>

Will respond with additional details on Monday when I am back at work but I did figure out to change it to not use the function keyword yesterday and it worked.

I am inheriting some shell scripts I didn't write - thank you for the hint to look at the mode.

I am seeing a similar behavior with the below function as well,

function prettyTime {
    local _dt=$1
    local _dm
    local _dh
    local _ds
    _dh=$((_dt / 3600))
    _dm=$(((_dt / 60) % 60))
    _ds=$((_dt % 60))
    printf '%d:%02d:%02d' ${_dh} ${_dm} ${_ds}
}

~ shfmt run.sh
run.sh:41:1: "}" can only be used to close a block

I am using shfmt 3.7.0, not sure why shfmt considers this a bug

@rgowtham

@rgowtham as I tried to explain in my previous comment, this is not a bug in shfmt - the parser will work if you properly parse the script as Bash. You can do that explicitly via the -ln=bash flag, or by naming the script foo.bash, or by adding a shebang like #!/usr/bin/bash. Instead of any of those three options, your script probably just has a name like foo.sh, so the parser assumes POSIX shell, where function is not a valid way to declare functions.

The parser should now give a better error message.

syntax: better error when using "function" in POSIX mode

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

"}" can only be used to close a block #993

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

"}" can only be used to close a block #993

Description

Activity

mvdan commented on Apr 22, 2023

leetrout commented on Apr 22, 2023

rgowtham commented on Jun 22, 2023

mvdan commented on Jun 23, 2023

mvdan commented on Jul 13, 2023

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions