Re: Need help with shell script.

On 2026-08-10, pH wrote:

> Using Linux Mint
>
> My wife downloads photos from her camera and leaves them in the "Desktop"
> directory.
>
> I put them where they belong (from a terminal) w/ 
> mv ~/Desktop/*JPG ~/Desktop/Beckys_stuff/
> mv ~/Desktop/*PDF ~/Desktop/Beckys_stuff/
>
> where Beckys_stuff is a directory 
>
> so I thought I'd make a clickable icon on the Desktop to make it easy for
> her.
> the file "move_pictures" contains:
> !/bin/bash,
> mv ~/Desktop/*JPG ~/Desktop/Beckys_stuff/
> mv ~/Desktop/*PDF ~/Desktop/Beckys_stuff/
>
> I saved it in my 'scripts' directory and and did "chmod +x move_pictures"
>
> I then created a new launcher on the desktop with the command field filled
> in as: ~/scripts/move_pictures
>
> But when I click on it I get an error messaage that pops up in a small
> window that says: "There was an error launching the application"
>
> Every variation I've tried (like removing the !/bin/bash shebang) has led to
> the same message.
>
> What am I doing wrong?


I did read the thread so far, but apologies if something was already
mentioned and I managed to overlook it:

1) Is GNU bash installed at (or somehow reachable at) /bin/bash ?

2) Does the script work when you invoke it manually, with no launcher
   involved? I don't mean the commands used, but the script itself, with
   e.g. ./move_pictures.

(Oh, and: if supported by that implementation of cp, won't you want to
add -n to the options? (Or perhaps --update=none, which apparently is
what GNU cp now encourages as a (lengthy?) replacement to -n?)

To put it in another way: What is your approach to avoid overwriting
files with the same name?)

-- 
Nuno Silva