Calling bash script from bash script - bash

Question

I have made two programms and I'm trying to call the one from the other but this is appearing on my screen:
cp: cannot stat ‘PerShip/.csv’: No such file or directory
cp: target ‘tmpship.csv’ is not a directory
I don't know what to do. Here are the programms. Could somebody help me please?
#!/bin/bash
shipname=$1
imo=$(grep "$shipname" shipsNAME-IMO.txt | cut -d "," -f 2)
cp PerShip/$imo'.csv' tmpship.csv
dist=$(octave -q ShipDistance.m 2>/dev/null)
grep "$shipname" shipsNAME-IMO.txt | cut -d "," -f 2 > IMO.txt
idnumber=$(cut -b 4-10 IMO.txt)
echo $idnumber,$dist
#!/bin/bash
rm -f shipsdist.csv
for ship in $(cat shipsNAME-IMO.txt | cut -d "," -f 1)
do
./FindShipDistance "$ship" >> shipsdist.csv
done
cat shipsdist.csv | sort | head -n 1

Answer 1

The code and error messages presented suggest that the second script is calling the first with an empty command-line argument. That would certainly happen if input file shipsNAME-IMO.txt contained any empty lines or otherwise any lines with an empty first field. An empty line at the beginning or end would do it.
I suggest
using the read command to read the data, and manipulating IFS to parse out comma-delimited fields
validating your inputs and other data early and often
making your scripts behave more pleasantly in the event of predictable failures
More generally, using internal Bash features instead of external programs where the former are reasonably natural.
For example:
#!/bin/bash
# Validate one command-line argument
[[ -n "$1" ]] || { echo empty ship name 1>&2; exit 1; }
# Read and validate an IMO corresponding to the argument
IFS=, read -r dummy imo tail < <(grep -F -- "$1" shipsNAME-IMO.txt)
[[ -f PerShip/"${imo}.csv" ]] || { echo no data for "'$imo'" 1>&2; exit 1; }
# Perform the distance calculation and output the result
cp PerShip/"${imo}.csv" tmpship.csv
dist=$(octave -q ShipDistance.m 2>/dev/null) ||
{ echo "failed to compute ship distance for '${imo}'" 2>&1; exit 1; }
echo "${imo:3:7},${dist}"
and
#!/bin/bash
# Note: the original shipsdist.csv will be clobbered
while IFS=, read -r ship tail; do
# Ignore any empty ship name, however it might arise
[[ -n "$ship" ]] && ./FindShipDistance "$ship"
done < shipsNAME-IMO.txt |
tee shipsdist.csv |
sort |
head -n 1
Note that making the while loop in the second script part of a pipeline will cause it to run in a subshell. That is sometimes a gotcha, but it won't cause any problem in this case.