rm from script will not run, but will run from console

[robertmcnaught]

Hi,

Never seen this issue before, tried googling, but never found anyone with the same problem. I have a very simple shell script which aims to remove directories based on time of day.

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash
#Script to remove pcap files after a few hours

hostname=`hostname`
echo hostname is $hostname

currentHour=`date +%H`
echo currentHour is $currentHour

workingDirectory=/var/lib/es/home/pcapsipdump/`hostname`/
echo workingDirectory is $workingDirectory

hoursToStore=$1
echo hoursToStore is $hoursToStore

hourToRemove=`date +%H --date "$hoursToStore hours ago"`
echo hourToRemove is $hourToRemove

chown -R es:es /var/lib/enswitch/home/
chmod 777 -R /var/lib/es/home/pcapsipdump/

echo removing $workingDirectory`date +%Y%m%d`/$hourToRemove/
echo rm -rfv $workingDirectory`date +%Y%m%d`/$hourToRemove/


This is the output I get when I run the command: directory remains untouched

[root@enlab1 bin]# ./remove_old_pcaps.sh 7
hostname is enlab1
currentHour is 15
workingDirectory is /var/lib/es/home/pcapsipdump/enlab1/
hoursToStore is 7
hourToRemove is 08
removing /var/lib/es/home/pcapsipdump/enlab1/20090219/08/
rm -rfv /var/lib/es/home/pcapsipdump/enlab1/20090219/08/


If I go out to the linux cli and do

rm -rfv /var/lib/es/home/pcapsipdump/enlab1/20090219/08/

it deletes all the files and shows them on screen as it is deleting them

I get no errors from my script when I run it. Plus permissions are set to 777 and the same owner as the script is being run as. Tried running the script as root, but still to no avail.

Is there anything that would cause something to not run from a basic script like this, but yet will from the command line itself?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Robert

[secondmouse]

echo rm -rfv $workingDirectory`date +%Y%m%d`/$hourToRemove/

Of course it will not rm the destination if you put echo in front of it.

[vsemaska]

You have an 'echo' in front of the 'rm' command so the script just prints the command instead of executing it. Remove the 'echo'.

[robertmcnaught]

thanks guys, never seen it, little embarassed now - I was just looking at the output from the script and not looking at the script enough

I will hang my head in shame

R