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Unexpected tokens after compound command. Bad redirection or missing ;/&&/||/|?

Problematic code:

while echo "$2"; do true; done \
  head -n "$1"

while sleep 1; do date; done > my file

Correct code:

while echo "$2"; do true; done \
  | head -n "$1"

while sleep 1; do date; done > "my file"

Rationale:

ShellCheck found unexpected trailing characters after a compound command.

The only things allowed after compound commands are redirections, shell keywords, and the various command separators (;, &, |, &&, ||).

In the first example, a | was missing, causing head to appear as an unexpected trailing word, instead of being piped to. In the second example, a lack of quoting caused file to appear as an unexpected trailing word, instead of being part of the redirection.

Examine your statement and correct the problem.

Exceptions:

None

Related resources:

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ShellCheck is a static analysis tool for shell scripts. This page is part of its documentation.