Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,

I am new to unix, and trying to create a simple script called "nightjobs"

set TODAY=`date +"%m%d%y"`
echo -n "Please enter your Initials (3 alpha characters): "
read init
for GROUP in 4 5
do
set logfile="/home/OPER/LOGS/nightjobs"$GROUP"-TODAY".log"
set filnam="daily"$GROUP"-"$TODAY
echo "Night jobs started: " $TODAY >$logfile
< Here I have the commands to do the nightjobs >
done

When I try to run this script, I get the following error message:

# ./nightjobs
Please enter your Initials (3 alpha characters): KLN
for: Command not found.
do: Command not found.
GROUP: Undefined variable.

What am I doing wrong? Please help. My first line in the script is
#!/bin/csh -f

Thank you.
Latha Nair

"for" and "do" are from sh, ksh, bash, or something like that. It looks like you wrote a sh script and carefully send it to csh to be run. Change the first line of your script to a shell that can run it. Or translate it into csh. csh has a foreach statement I think, but I'm not a csh expert.

It works in ksh. I was trying to use csh because it can put the cursor right after the question
echo -n "Please enter your Initials (3 alpha characters): "
and let the user type in their initials. When I used ksh, it takes the cursor to the next line. I know this is not a big deal, but I just wanted to leave the cursor right after the endquote.

I will see if I can get any additional information on the 'foreach' statement.

Thank you for your help.
Latha Nair

The echo statement can have varying syntax. The best thing to do in ksh is switch to print when you care.

print -n "Enter value - "

wOw......... Things are sure easy when you know what you are doing. Thanks a bunch! That works for me, and that was all I was trying to accomplish.

This site is great!
Latha Nair

That is almost my personal motto. (I reverse words 2 and 3). I plan to have that carved into my tombstone.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), we don't have tombstones! We get cremated! So, I guess whatever I have to say would be cremated with me!

My conclusion is that all the manuals, help routines , everything that is meant to make things easier...... makes sense only when you know the stuff (at least most of the time). I get better tips from people who have worked with the stuff (like I am doing now). I am slowly getting better, as each day goes by. We just have been up on Unix barely a month. I have only OpenVMS knowledge, which is NO GOOD at this point! I guess we have to roll with the punches (as they say?) I will keep a watch on this site for helpful information. I did go thru a lot of emails from folks like me - struggling with some day to day stuff.

Thanks again.....for your help. It is much appreciated.

Latha Nair