syntax error near unexpected token `(' in shell script

Question

This is my script.

#!/bin/bash
MONITOR=$(free -m| grep Mem)
MEM_TOTAL=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $2 }')
MEM_USED=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $3 }')
MEM_FREE=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $4 }')
MEM_CACHE=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $5 }')
MEM_BUFFER=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $6 }')
declare -i MEM_UTIL=($MEM_TOTAL-($MEM_FREE+$MEM_BUFFER+$MEM_CACHE))
echo "$MEM_UTIL"

I got syntax errors such as

./memory_shell.sh: line 15: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./memory_shell.sh: line 15: `declare -i MEM_UTIL=($MEM_TOTAL-($MEM_FREE+$MEM_BUFFER+$MEM_CACHE))'

How can I fix it. I have 0 knowledge in shell scripting

shellcheck.net is your friend

jDo
– jDo

2016-03-29 08:53:41 +00:00
Commented Mar 29, 2016 at 8:53 — jDo
– jDo, Commented Mar 29, 2016 at 8:53

steve · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-13 01:31:41Z

3

Just to record my issue with exactly this error message. Turns out my scripts were DOS text files not Unix text files (as a result of a restore). DOS2Unix fix scripts and they ran fine with out this error. Your mileage may vary ....

answered Mar 13, 2018 at 1:31

steve

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Comments

patthoyts · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-29 08:54:12Z

1

You just need to put quotes around the argument to declare -i as it takes one argument.

declare -i MEM_UTIL="($MEM_TOTAL-($MEM_FREE+$MEM_BUFFER+$MEM_CACHE))"

As you're using awk anyway, you may as well use it fully. The following does the same operation in awk:

#!/bin/sh
free -m | awk '/Mem/ {print($2 - ($4 + $5 + $6));}'

Awk can match the line for you as you are doing with grep and perform operations on the fields in the matched record. So rather than forking a number of subprocesses, you can fork one to process the output of the free command.

answered Mar 29, 2016 at 8:54

patthoyts

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2 Comments

pico Over a year ago

How can I get buffer and cache? MEM_BUFFER=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $6 }') is getting as buffer/cache. I have no idea to get separately. Actually this script getting MEM_CACHE=$(echo $MONITOR | awk '{ print $5 }') shared memory

patthoyts Over a year ago

If you need more parts parsed you will need to either return multiple values from the awk script and use the shell read function or continue with the exisiting script but use quotes to group the expression into a single argument. You've evidently only posted a fraction of the script so only you know which parts you will require.

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