This issue is caused by incorrect use of } where fi should be used to properly close if blocks. The script fails during preprocessing due to these syntax errors. Here are the places where this happens ...

Syntax errors in scripts and programs are relatively common, especially for new to the whole coding world. A typo or punctuation omission can waste hours of debugging time.

The “syntax error near unexpected token '('” in shell scripts occurs when the script encounters an unexpected character or structure, causing it to stop.