What's wrong with my bash array?

Question

Can anyone tell me why this bash script works if I cut and paste it to the terminal but throws "server_prep.sh: 7: Syntax error: "(" unexpected" when launched using $ sudo sh server_prep.sh ?

#!/bin/sh

#Packages
apt-get -y install ssh libsqlite3-dev ruby-full mercurial

#Gems
required_gems = ( rake rails sqlite3-ruby )

#Set up directories
[ ! -d /var/www ] && mkdir /var/www
[ ! -d /var/www/apps ] && mkdir /var/www/apps

#install gems manually
if ! which gem >/dev/null; then
	wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/60718/rubygems-1.3.5.tgz
	tar xvfz rubygems-1.3.5.tgz
	ruby rubygems-1.3.5/setup.rb
	ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem
	gem update --system

	#Tidy Up
	rm -rf rubygems-1.3.5.tgz rubygems-1.3.5
fi

#Install required gems
for required_gem in "${required_gems[@]}"
do
	if ! gem list | grep $required_gem >/dev/null; then
		gem install $required_gems
	fi
done

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Your script is using sh, not bash, when it's executed. There could be a minor syntax difference between the two.

Try changing !#/bin/sh to !#/bin/bash at the top of your script

Answer 2

You can't have spaces when assigning variables in sh/bash. It has to be:

required_gems=( rake rails sqlite3-ruby )

In any case, it doesn't have to be an array, you could just do:

required_gems="fake rails sqlite3-ruby"

and then

for required_gem in ${required_gems}; do
  blah blah
done

Notice there are no "" around ${required_gems}

Answer 3

The third to last line, should $required_gems read $required_gem?