Problem with rm

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

strSpoolFile="/batch/job/temp/acdd223_weeklyReport.txt"
FAILURE=16

[[ -f ${strSpoolFile} ]] && {
rm ${strSpoolFile} || (( intRetCd = FAILURE ))
}

Is there any possible case the above code snippet throws the following error: The code runs on IBM server, ksh (may be old version of it):

rm: /batch/job/temp/acdd223_weeklyReport.txt: No such file or directory

A "yes" with a reason would be highly appreciated....let it be any wild guess.... Thanks

2

Some guesses:

Somebody editing the script while it is running.

Mismatched brackets, quotes etc. elsewhere in the script which upset the script and sub-script structure.

The clause (( intRetCd = FAILURE )) looks like multiple syntax errors to me. What is it it meant to do? This line or other similar lines earlier in the script could cause issues at run time.

Two copies of the script running concurrently or another process deleting the file.

Bad character(s) in the script file.

Unprintable character in line
strSpoolFile="/batch/job/temp/acdd223_weeklyReport.txt"
i.e. Such that the "." in the filename becomes a wildcard in the conditional statement [[ ]] but does not work unquoted in rm. More likely if the variable strSpoolFile was used to create the file.

Invisible line wrap caused by cut and paste.

Might be worth examining the script with
sed -n l scriptname
and checking that each line ends promptly in a newline ($) and that there are no weird characters or hidden backspace characters.

Then check the block structure of the script by matching brackets, quotes, if/fi case/esac etc. etc. .

Good luck.

3

methyl covered most of the possible problems.
this is a more conventional rewrite without the errors inside the (( ))

strSpoolFile="/batch/job/temp/acdd223_weeklyReport.txt"
FAILURE=16

if [[ -f ${strSpoolFile} ]] ; then
    rm ${strSpoolFile} || intRetCd=FAILURE
fi

You could just rewrite it with if then fi syntax and move on.

4

Further to Jim Mcnamara, perhaps you meant?

strSpoolFile="/batch/job/temp/acdd223_weeklyReport.txt"
FAILURE=16

if [[ -f "${strSpoolFile}" ]] ; then
rm "${strSpoolFile}" || intRetCd=${FAILURE}
fi