title: case in bash: "line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `)'"
body: <p>case in bash: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `)'</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I'm trying to use the command <code>case</code> in Bash (on my Raspberry Pi again), but when I run my script, Bash spits out errors.  I've read over many tutorials and I think I'm doing the same thing as them, but something's just not right.</p>
  
  <p>Here's my code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>#!/bin/bash
  case "$1" in
          help) echo "You asked for help. Sorry, I'm busy."
          *) echo "You didn't say anything. Try 'help' as the first argument."
  esac
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Here's the output (the filename is newmkdir and I ran it with no arguments):</p>
  
  <pre><code>./newmkdir: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `)'
  ./newmkdir: line 4: `   *) echo "You didn't say anything. Try 'help' as the first argument."'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm trying to have my script interpret <code>help</code> and then make anything else output the next line.  </p>
  
  <p>(Note this is just an example of a glitched script.  This script has no meaning and might not even make sense, it's just a test.)</p>