Shell Programming and Scripting

Oops

I don't really get that... the -q option states: Quiet; do not write anything to standard output. Exit immediately with zero status if any match is found, even if an error was detected. Also see the -s or --no-messages option. (-q is specified by POSIX.)

So that doesn't make sense, additionally I ran a search which even made me more complexed:
Five Shell Programming Tips

it says exit with zero when match is found, not the other way around... anyone care to enlighten me?

double post, this site has been screwy today ^_^

EDIT: ok, nevermind I just got it, testing for a line in a file.... which is true so we delete. duh...

EDIT: why does my head always feel like it's going to explode over the simplest of things, yet I can usually grasp complex >.<

---------- Post updated 11-29-09 at 12:32 AM ---------- Previous update was 11-28-09 at 09:58 PM ----------

I don't want to start yet another new thread, this is simply a lame output format I can't seem to get around.

I'm greping line for delete function, and then I want to display the whole line to standard output with the string ":deleted" appended.

I have tried piping grep to echo, but have tried all positional parameters $1 $? $@ and no joy as it only returns 0, which seems to be what is output in echo. using redirection gives me the line "grep: BREAD - WHITE:deleted"

not sure how to get around this unless i grep the output to temp file then cat the file.

I need it to say the full line that grep would output such as:
BREAD - WHITE:TIPTOP:5:deleted.

but as I am only searching for "BREAD - WHITE:TIPTOP:" (the only arguments i have) and not the isle number I can't get it to output the isle number >
I also tried
grep "string" $file ; echo ":deleted."
but this put the echo on separate line.

How about:

Code:

if record=$(grep "$1$2" $dbfile)
then 
    #delete the line
    echo "$record:deleted."
else
    echo "Key $1$2:No such record"
fi

Thanks again scrutinizer (and others) you have definately taught me a lot over the last few days. Only have only last "ambiguous redirect" error occurring which I should be able to figure out and I'm done, 3 week assignment done in 3 days woooot.

---------- Post updated at 08:32 AM ---------- Previous update was at 08:24 AM ----------

Jumped the gun there, this is not working

Code:

if record=$(grep -q "${1}:${2}:" $dbfile)
 "${1}:${2}:" then
    grep -v  "${1}:${2}:" $dbfile > ../tmp/tmp
    cat ../tmp/tmp > $dbfile
    echo "${record}${RECDELETED}"
else
    echo "${1}:${2}:${ERRNODEL}"
fi

also tried

Code:

 
if record=(grep -q "${1}:${2}:" $dbfile)

output of the first is ":deleted" second is "grep:deleted"

My example was without the -q option, otherwise $record will be empty
I suspect the part in red is a cut-pasto?

S.

woops.. misread,

thanks again