Bash script error: “function: not found”. Why would this appear?

Question

I\'m trying to run a bash script on my Ubuntu machine and it is giving me an error:

function not found

To test, I

Answer 1

Doesn't it require () after function name, or at the call?

function sayIt() { ...
}

sayIt()

? :)

Hmm, actually, on MY mac, it works just as you pasted..

dtpwmbp:~ pwadas$ cat aa.sh 
#!/bin/bash

function sayIt() {   
   echo "hello world"
}

sayIt

dtpwmbp:~ pwadas$ ./aa.sh 
hello world
dtpwmbp:~ pwadas$ 

Compare bash version, AFAIR some older version required "()"s.

dtpwmbp:~ pwadas$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.48(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin12)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
dtpwmbp:~ pwadas$ 

Also compare state of shopt options ( man bash ), on both shells, maybe one of them have some compat syntax turned on or off ? "shopt" command without args will list state of options supported.

What is the 'function' keyword used in some bash scripts?