Hi, first of all, sorry for my poor english. I found a little script on the web, that compress some files in .tar format and I modified it a bit. Here it is:

#!/bin/bash
HLDS=/mypath/ #Working directory where demos are
REP=/mypath/ #copying directory
FORMAT=`tar -cvf`
EXTENSION=tar
#FORMAT=zip #Compression using ZIP
#EXTENSION=zip #Associated extension
cd $HLDS
for files in `ls *.dem` do
$FORMAT $files.$(date +%s).$EXTENSION $files
echo "$files.$(date +%s).$EXTENSION compressed"
mv $files.$(date +%s).$EXTENSION $REP
echo "$files.$(date +%s).$EXTENSION moved"
rm $files
echo "$files deleted"
done;
echo "Demos are available in : $REP"


The result is:

tar: option requires an argument -- f
Try `tar --help' for more information
./zipDemos: line 10: syntax error near unexpected token `$FORMAT'
./zipDemos: line 10: ` $FORMAT $files.$(date +%s).$EXTENSION $files'

I think the problem, is the argument of the command tar, but I dont understand why it doesn't work. My linux is debian. Thank you for any help!

the problem seem to be here:
FORMAT=`tar -cvf`

it should be
FORMAT="tar -cvf"

cuz `xxx` will execute xxx so FORMAT will contain the result of execution of xxx, not xxx

thank you for reply, I will try it now ^^.

it doesn't work

Now the result is:

./zipDemos: line 10: syntax error near unexpected token `$FORMAT'
./zipDemos: line 10: ` $FORMAT $files.$(date +%s).$EXTENSION $files'

Thank you anyway

Try putting
set -xv
on the 2nd line of the script, which will show you
exactly what's going on. I ssupect you may need to say something like
${FORMAT} ${files}.$(date +%s).${EXTENSION} $files
so that the interpreter can distinguish the var names correctly.

for files in `ls *.dem` do


This line should be

for files in `ls *.dem`
do


-Do should come on the next line

Cheers
Z