EOF issue in shell script

Question

This following code segment giving error:14: syntax error: unexpected end of file

#!/bin/bash
func_some()
{
    cd some_directory
    lftp -u user,'password' sftp://192.168.xx.xx <<EOF
    cd some_directory
    mget ADMS_report_*${2}${3}${4}*.txt
}
#------------------------------ Main function ------------------------------
func_some 2017 08 08 2017 08 07

But if I remove <<EOF then script just logging in but not executing subsequent command and staying logging in indefinitely.

What could be the solution for this? What mistakes I'm making?

Answer 1

The <<EOF indicates the start of heredoc

A here document is a special-purpose code block. It uses a form of I/O redirection to feed a command list to an interactive program or a command, such as ftp, cat, or the ex text editor.

You should then close your heredoc code block, like that:

func_some() 
{
    cd some_directory
    lftp -u user,'password' sftp://192.168.xx.xx <<EOF
    cd some_directory
    mget ADMS_report_*${2}${3}${4}*.txt
EOF
}

as otherwise it will keep on searching for the limit string (EOF), and fail with a syntax error, when the end of file is reached.

Note that the limit string, must be placed at the start of the line, with no spaces in front of it.