Explanation: The general structure of a for loop in a shell script is as follows12:
for variable in list do commands done
The variable is the name of a loop counter or iterator that takes on the values of the items in the list. The list can be a sequence of words, numbers, filenames, or the output of a command. The commands are the body of the loop that are executed for each value of the variable. The do and done keywords mark the beginning and the end of the loop body.
The option C. for file in *.txt do echo $i done follows this structure, with the variable being file, the list being *.txt (which matches all the files with the .txt extension in the current directory), and the command being echo $i (which prints the value of the variable i, which is presumably set somewhere else in the script).
The other options are incorrect because:
- A. for *.txt as file => echo $file uses an invalid syntax for a for loop. The as keyword is not part of the shell script syntax, and the => symbol is not a valid operator. The correct way to write this loop would be:
for file in *.txt do echo $file done
- B. for *.txt ( echo $i ) uses an invalid syntax for a for loop. The parentheses are not part of the shell script syntax, and the loop body is missing the do and done keywords. The correct way to write this loop would be:
for i in *.txt do echo $i done
- D. for ls *.txt exec {} ; uses an invalid syntax for a for loop. The ls command is not a valid variable name, and the exec {} ; is not a valid command. This looks like a mix of a for loop and a find command. The correct way to write this loop would be:
for file in *.txt do exec $file done
- E. foreach @{file} { echo $i } uses an invalid syntax for a for loop. The foreach keyword is not part of the shell script syntax, and the @{file} and { echo $i } are not valid expressions. This looks like a mix of a for loop and a Perl syntax. The correct way to write this loop would be:
for file in * do echo $file done
References:
- Looping Statements | Shell Script - GeeksforGeeks
- How do I write a ‘for’ loop in Bash? - Stack Overflow