Near eof syntax error unexpected end of source code

You are running a Bash script, and you see a syntax error: Unexpected end of file.

What does it mean?

This can happen if you create your script using Windows.

Why?

Because Windows uses a combination of two characters, Carriage Return and Line Feed, as line break in text files (also known as CRLF).

On the other side Unix (or Linux) only use the Line Feed character as line break.

So, let’s see what happens if we save a script using Windows and then we execute it in Linux.

Using the Windows notepad I have created a Bash script called end_of_file.sh:

#/bin/bash

if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
  echo "More than one argument passed"
else
  echo "No arguments passed"
fi

And here is the output I get when I execute it:

[ec2-user@localhost scripts]$ ./end_of_file.sh 
./end_of_file.sh: line 2: $'r': command not found
./end_of_file.sh: line 8: syntax error: unexpected end of file 

How do we see where the problem is?

Edit the script with the vim editor using the -b flag that runs the editor in binary mode:

[ec2-user@localhost scripts]$ vim -b end_of_file.sh

(Below you can see the content of the script)

#/bin/bash^M
^M
if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then^M
  echo "More than one argument passed"^M
else^M
  echo "No arguments passed"^M
fi^M

At the end of each line we see the ^M character. What is that?

It’s the carriage return we have mentioned before. Used by Windows but not by Unix (Linux) in line breaks.

To solve both errors we need to convert our script into a format that Linux understands.

The most common tool to do that is called dos2unix.

If dos2unix is not present on your system you can use the package manager of your distribution to install it.

For instance, on my server I can use YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified).

To search for the package I use the yum search command:

[root@localhost ~]$ yum search dos2unix
Loaded plugins: extras_suggestions, langpacks, priorities, update-motd
====================== N/S matched: dos2unix =====================================
dos2unix.x86_64 : Text file format converters

And then the yum install command to install it:

[root@localhost ~]$ yum install dos2unix
Loaded plugins: extras_suggestions, langpacks, priorities, update-motd
amzn2-core                                                   | 2.4 kB  00:00:00
amzn2extra-docker                                            | 1.8 kB  00:00:00     
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package dos2unix.x86_64 0:6.0.3-7.amzn2.0.2 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution 

Dependencies Resolved 

==================================================================================
  Package       Arch        Version            Repository            Size
==================================================================================
 Installing:
  dos2unix      x86_64      6.0.3-7.amzn2.0.2  amzn2-core            75 k
 
 Transaction Summary
==================================================================================
 Install  1 Package

 Total download size: 75 k
 Installed size: 194 k
 Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
 Downloading packages:
 dos2unix-6.0.3-7.amzn2.0.2.x86_64.rpm                      |  75 kB  00:00:00     
 Running transaction check
 Running transaction test
 Transaction test succeeded
 Running transaction
   Installing : dos2unix-6.0.3-7.amzn2.0.2.x86_64                          1/1 
   Verifying  : dos2unix-6.0.3-7.amzn2.0.2.x86_64                          1/1 

 Installed:
   dos2unix.x86_64 0:6.0.3-7.amzn2.0.2                                                                                                                         
 Complete! 

We are ready to convert our script using dos2unix!

[ec2-user@localhost scripts]$ dos2unix end_of_file.sh 
dos2unix: converting file end_of_file.sh to Unix format ... 

And now it’s time to execute it:

[ec2-user@localhost scripts]$ ./end_of_file.sh  No arguments passed

It works!

If you are interested I have written an article that explains the basics of Bash script arguments.

Conclusion

I have found myself having to use the dos2unix command several times over the years.

And now you know what to do if you see the syntax error “Unexpected end of file” while running a Bash script 🙂

Related FREE Course: Decipher Bash Scripting

The SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing occurs if the Python interpreter reaches the end of your source code before executing all the code blocks. This happens if you forget to close the parenthesis or if you have forgotten to add the code in the blocks statements such as for, if, while, etc. To solve this error check if all the parenthesis are closed properly and you have at least one line of code written after the statements such as for, if, while, and functions.

What is an unexpected EOF while parsing error in Python?

EOF stands for End of File and SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing error occurs where the control in the code reaches the end before all the code is executed. 

Generally, if you forget to complete a code block in python code, you will get an error “SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing.”

Most programming languages like C, C++, and Java use curly braces { } to define a block of code. Python, on the other hand, is a “block-structured language” that uses indentation.

A Python program is constructed from code blocks. A block is a piece of Python program text that is executed as a unit. The following are blocks: a module, a function body, and a class definition. Each command typed interactively is a block.

There are several reasons why we get this error while writing the python code. Let us look into each of the scenarios and solve the issue.

Sometimes if the code is not indented properly you will get unindent does not match any outer indentation error.

Scenario 1 – Missing parenthesis or Unclosed parenthesis

One of the most common scenarios is an unclosed parenthesis (), brackets [], and curly braces {} in the Python code.

• Parenthesis is mainly used in print statements, declaring tuples, calling the built-in or user-defined methods, etc.
• Square brackets are used in declaring the Arrays, Lists, etc in Python
• Curly braces are mainly used in creating the dictionary and JSON objects.

In the below example, we have taken simple use cases to demonstrate the issue. In larger applications, the code will be more complex and we should use IDEs such as VS Code, and PyCharm which detect and highlights these common issues to developers.

# Paranthesis is not closed properly in the Print Statement
print("Hello"

# Square bracket is not closed while declaring the list
items =[1,2,3,4,5


# Curly Braces is not closed while creating the dictionary
dictionary={ 'FirstName':'Jack'

Output

SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing

If you look at the above code, we have a print statement where the parenthesis has not closed, a list where the square bracket is not closed, and a dictionary where the curly braces are not closed. Python interpreter will raise unexpected EOF while parsing.

Solution :

We can fix the issue by enclosing the braces, parenthesis, and square brackets properly in the code as shown below.

# Paranthesis is now closed properly in the Print Statement
print("Hello")

# Square bracket is now closed while declaring the list
items =[1,2,3,4,5]
print(items)

# Curly Braces is now closed while creating the dictionary
dictionary={ 'FirstName':'Jack'}
print(dictionary)

Output

Hello
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
{'FirstName': 'Jack'}

If we try to execute the program notice the error is gone and we will get the output as expected.

Scenario 2: Incomplete functions along with statements, loops, try and except 

The other scenario is if you have forgotten to add the code after the Python statements, loops, and methods.

• if Statement / if else Statement
• try-except statement
• for loop
• while loop
• user-defined function

Python expects at least one line of code to be present right after these statements and loops. If you have forgotten or missed to add code inside these code blocks Python will raise SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing

Let us look at some of these examples to demonstrate the issue. For demonstration, all the code blocks are added as a single code snippet.

# Code is missing after the for loop
fruits = ["apple","orange","grapes","pineapple"]
for i in fruits :

# Code is missing after the if statement
a=5
if (a>10):


# Code is missing after the else statement
a=15
if (a>10):
    print("Number is greater than 10")
else:


# Code is missing after the while loop
num=15
while(num<20):

# Code is missing after the method declaration
def add(a,b):

Output

SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing

Solution :

We can fix the issue by addressing all the issues in each code block as mentioned below.

• for loop: We have added the print statement after the for loop.
• if else statement: After the conditional check we have added the print statement which fixes the issue.
• while loop: We have added a print statement and also incremented the counter until the loop satisfies the condition.
• method: The method definition cannot be empty we have added the print statement to fix the issue.

# For loop fixed
fruits = ["apple", "orange", "grapes", "pineapple"]
for i in fruits:
    print(i)

# if statement fixed
a = 5
if a > 10:
    print("number is greated than 10")
else:
    print("number is lesser than 10")

# if else statement fixed
a = 15
if a > 10:
    print("Number is greater than 10")
else:
    print("number is lesser than 10")


# while loop fixed
num = 15
while num < 20:
    print("Current Number is", num)
    num = num + 1


# Method fix
def add(a, b):
    print("Hello Python")


add(4, 5)

Output

apple
orange
grapes
pineapple
number is lesser than 10
Number is greater than 10
Current Number is 15
Current Number is 16
Current Number is 17
Current Number is 18
Current Number is 19
Hello Python

Conclusion

The SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing occurs if the Python interpreter reaches the end of your source code before executing all the code blocks. To resolve the SyntaxError: unexpected EOF while parsing in Python, make sure that you follow the below steps.

1. Check for Proper Indentation in the code.
2. Make sure all the parenthesis, brackets, and curly braces are opened and closed correctly.
3. At least one statement of code exists in loops, statements, and functions.
4. Verify the syntax, parameters, and the closing statements

These few lines are not intended as a full-fledged debugging tutorial, but as hints and comments about debugging a Bash script.

echo "DEBUG: current i=$i" >&2

pid=$(< fooservice.pid)
echo "DEBUG: read from file: pid="$pid"" >&2

foo=$(< inputfile)
printf "DEBUG: foo is |%q|n" "$foo" >&2
# exposes whitespace (such as CRs, see below) and non-printing characters

set -x
foo="bar baz"
[ $foo = test ]

+ '[' bar baz = test ']'

# next try
[ "$foo" = test ]

+ '[' 'bar baz' = test ']'
      ^       ^
    word markers!

export PS4='+(${BASH_SOURCE}:${LINENO}): ${FUNCNAME[0]:+${FUNCNAME[0]}(): }'

+(somefile.bash:412): echo 'Hello world'

+(somefile.bash:412): myfunc(): echo 'Hello world'

Set flag variables with descriptive words

If you test variables that flag the state of options, such as with if [[ -n $option ]];, consider using descriptive words rather than short codes, such as 0, 1, Y, N, because xtrace will show [[ -n word ]] rather than [[ -n 1 ]] when the option is set.

Debugging commands depending on a set variable

debugme() {
 [[ $script_debug = 1 ]] && "$@" || :
 # be sure to append || : or || true here or use return 0, since the return code
 # of this function should always be 0 to not influence anything else with an unwanted
 # "false" return code (for example the script's exit code if this function is used
 # as the very last command in the script)
}

script_debug=1
# to turn it off, set script_debug=0

debugme logger "Sorting the database"
database_sort
debugme logger "Finished sorting the database, exit code $?"

debugme set -x
# ... some code ...
debugme set +x

Dry-run STDIN driven commands

ftp user@host <<FTP
cd /data
get current.log
dele current.log
FTP

if [[ $DRY_RUN = yes ]]; then
  sed 's/^/DRY_RUN FTP: /'
else
  ftp user@host
fi <<FTP
cd /data
get current.log
dele current.log
FTP

script.sh: line 100: syntax error: unexpected end of file

script.sh: line 50: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `"'
script.sh: line 100: syntax error: unexpected end of file

bash: test: too many arguments

$ echo "Hello world!"
bash: !": event not found

set +H
# or
set +o histexpand

$ foo () { echo "Hello world"; }
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

#!/bin/bash^M
^M
echo "Hello world"^M
...

bash: ./testing.sh: /bin/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

How can I find and eliminate them?