gdate command does not work in Bash script

[bikermikem]

iMac (2017) with OS Mojave 10.14.6 (18G6020)
I've installed the gdate command using brew and it works from the interactive command line but not in a bash script.

Script:
#!/bin/bash
old_date=grep 'Last updated' /etc/hosts | cut -c21-32 | xargs
echo $old_date

convert to epoch.

set -x
old_date=($(gdate --date="$old_date" +%s))
echo $old_date

From error log:

• old_date=($(gdate --date="$old_date" +%s))
  ++ gdate '--date=29 Oct 2020' +%s
  /Users/mike/Scripts/hosts_get/hosts_get.sh: line 11: gdate: command not found

From Command Line:
~/Scripts/hosts_get ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11:19:15
$ old_date=grep 'Last updated' /etc/hosts | cut -c21-32 | xargs
~/Scripts/hosts_get ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11:19:23
$ echo $old_date
29 Oct 2020
~/Scripts/hosts_get ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11:19:36
$ old_date=($(gdate --date="$old_date" +%s))
~/Scripts/hosts_get ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11:20:04
$ echo $old_date
1603929600

[SMillerDev]

What does echo $PATH report in both environments?

[bikermikem]

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/Applications/Wireshark.app/Contents/MacOS:~/bin:/usr/local/Cellar/qt/5.11.1:/usr/local/opt/qt/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/opt/gettext/bin

I'm set for bash in my user preferences, not ksh.

[SMillerDev]

That is what it returns in your shell, but what does it return in a script?

[bikermikem]

• echo 'PATH = '
• echo /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Don't understand why it doesn't pick up my path additions in .profile but thinking it might be due to running as a Global Deamon in launchctrl so running as root I believe. Sorry I'm not a Unix guru, DEC's OpenVMS is my forte. Wish I could run it on a Mac.

[gromgit]

Yeah, scripts run outside of a Terminal window generally don't pick up the stuff in ~/.profile. If it's being run as root, it won't even be looking at the right user's .profile anyway.

Your best bet is probably to hardcode the path to gdate in your script. Assuming you use it multiple times in your script, add the following near the top:

gdate=/usr/local/bin/gdate
if [ ! -x $gdate ]; then
  echo "FATAL ERROR: $gdate not found." >&2
  exit 1
fi

then substitute gdate with $gdate everywhere else in your script.

[bikermikem]

Thanks, that worked. Take Care, Mike