Why won't my version of bash accept function keyword?

Question

My version of bash is:

bash --version GNU bash, version 4.2.45(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

If I do the prototype function

#!/bin/bash function f() { echo "hello" $1 } f "world"

I get Syntax error: "(" unexpected

Why is that?

Output of shopt is:

autocd off cdable_vars off cdspell off checkhash off checkjobs off checkwinsize on cmdhist on compat31 off compat32 off compat40 off compat41 off direxpand off dirspell off dotglob off execfail off expand_aliases on extdebug off extglob on extquote on failglob off force_fignore on globstar off gnu_errfmt off histappend on histreedit off histverify off hostcomplete off huponexit off interactive_comments on lastpipe off lithist off login_shell off mailwarn off no_empty_cmd_completion off nocaseglob off nocasematch off nullglob off progcomp on promptvars on restricted_shell off shift_verbose off sourcepath on xpg_echo off

works for me.. make sure that there are no special, hidden, characters in the file — hek2mgl
– hek2mgl, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 0:50
Try cat -A filename. It expands control characters to printable forms, and adds a $ to the end of each line. — Keith Thompson
– Keith Thompson, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 0:55
How are you running the file? The error message sounds like it is coming from ksh or some other non-bash shell. — rici
– rici, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 0:57
I get that error if I run the script with dash foo.bash or sh foo.bash (/bin/sh is a symlink to dash on my system). The #!/bin/bash line causes your script to be interpreted by bash -- but only if you invoke it directly, not if you feed it to some other shell. — Keith Thompson
– Keith Thompson, Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 1:00

Keith Thompson · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-19 01:07:08Z

Your version of bash does accept the function keyword. The problem is that you're not running your script under bash.

I get the same error if I run the script with dash foo.bash or sh foo.bash (/bin/sh is a symlink to dash on my system).

dash doesn't recognize the function syntax.

The #!/bin/bash line causes your script to be interpreted by bash -- but only if you invoke it directly, not if you feed it to some other shell.

Rather than invoking a shell and passing your script name to it as an argument:

sh foo.bash

just invoke your script directly:

foo.bash (or ./foo.bash)

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