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Trying to create a dynamic set of Key-Value pairs through a series of for loops that basically pull from a JSON file to create a series of arrays that are then iterated through to define the key-value pairs.

The issue I am having is that I keep getting the following error when I run the script:

array[key]=value: command not found

The information it should be writing to the array looks correct, just gives me that error.

Here's how I am trying to add to the arrays.

$array[$key]=$value

Not quite sure if I am trying to do something that simply cannot be done.

I've tried a few variations of the script, all with the same "command not found" error.

Here is the full script as written at the moment:

#!/bin/bash 

backupTargets=()
#currently active nodes
nodeArray=()
#add proxmox api token
pveTOK=FOO

get_nodes () { 
#grab currently active nodes 
curl -s -k -H "Authorization: PVEAPIToken=$pveTOK" https:///api2/json/nodes | jq . > nodes
#use jq to extract inital data from the curl command, remove returns with tr and use sed to clean things up to make it ready to be placed 
#in an array
nodes=$(jq [.data[].node] nodes | tr -d '\n'| sed 's/\[//g; s/\]//g; s/ //g; s/,/ /g; s/\"//g')
nodeArray=($nodes)
}

declare_variables () {
for node in "${nodeArray[@]}"
do
declare -A $node
done
}

get_backupVMs () {
#some nested for loops that iterate over the nodes to create a dictionary that contains each vm and the associated tags
for node in "${nodeArray[@]}"
do
hosts=()
curl -s -k -H "Authorization: PVEAPIToken=$pveTOK" https:///api2/json/nodes/$node/qemu | jq . > $node
name=$(jq [.data[].name] $node | tr -d '\n'| sed 's/\[//g; s/\]//g; s/ //g; s/,/ /g; s/\"//g')
hosts+=($name)
for host in "${hosts[@]}"
do
tags=$(jq '.data[] | select(.name=='\"$host\"').tags' $node | sed 's/\[//g; s/\]//g; s/ //g; s/;/ /g; s/\"//g')
$node[$host]=$tags
done
done
}

get_nodes
declare_variables
get_backupVMs
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1
  • Remove the $ in front of array. $ is a special character for the shell indicating parameter expansion. When you start a line with $, the first word is never interpreted as a variable assignement, but as a command. That's why you get the error command not found. Commented Jul 13, 2023 at 9:37

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

The relevant part of your code is basically:

for node in "${nodeArray[@]}"; do
    declare -A $node
done

for node in "${nodeArray[@]}"; do
    $node[$host]=$tags
done

Bash does not support variable name indirection written like this.

Assignments are only recognized if the LHS is a valid variable name, optionally followed by something in brackets, followed by an equal sign, followed by the value to be assigned. However $node before expansion is not a valid variable name. (See: assignment() in the Bash source-code.)

Because Bash does not recognise your assignment as being one, it tries to execute the word as a command, which gives the errors you have seen.

There is almost certainly a better way to structure the logic of your code so that this type of indirection is not needed but a quick-and-dirty fix is to use a nameref in the second loop (the first loop remains unchanged):

for node in "${nodeArray[@]}"; do
    declare -n ref=$node
    ref[$host]=$tags
done
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4 Comments

This seems to have at least gotten rid of the errors, however it doesn't seem to create the output I need, seemingly changing every time the script is run when I do a quick echo ${foo[@]} where foo is a known node name created by the declare -n ref-$node Looks like I will have to find a better structure for the logic after all. If there are any suggestions on where to start looking or reading about a better way to do this, I always appreciated a good push in the right direction.
@DavisSayer I assume ref-$node is a typo? Note that you have to perform a declare -n every time you change the destination of the reference - it has to be inside the loop
Ach, yeah, that was supposed to read ref=$node and it is being declared at the beginning of the loop for node in "${nodeArray[@]}" - basically I removed the declare_variables function from the script and integrated the nameref into the beginning of the get_backupVMs function.
@DavisSayer I expected you to retain the first for loop unchanged (I elided it to focus on the change). You still need to declare -A your actual associative arrays, otherwise the ref[$host] assignment will be treated as applying to an indexed array and $host will be cast to an integer.
0

First, you need to declare the associative array:

declare -A array

In the assignment, don't use the dollar sign on the left hand side:

array[$key]=$value

Also, make sure you're running the script in bash, not some other shell. Associative arrays aren't supported everywhere (e.g. in dash).

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3 Comments

I suggest to use double quotes: array[$key]="$value"
@Cyrus: They aren't needed in assignments.
@choroba The arrays are declared earlier in the script based on the contents of another loop. The name of the array itself is a variable in the for loop, thus the $ in $array. Is there a better way of looping and adding to an array as a variable?
0

I guess you need a pseudo multidimensional array (as bash supports only 1 dimension you have to create special keys)

declare -A array
for n in ${nodeArray[@]}; do
   for h in ${hosts[@]}; do
     array["$n,$h"]="tags $n $h"
   done
done
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