unary operator expected

timgolding · #1 (**permalink**) 04-03-2009

Im trying to fix my /etc/weekly that rotates various logs however it does them no matter what filesize they are and i want them to only do it if there file size exceeds 2M or something. So I'm playing with a script to get the filesize using a ls -l command which works and puts the value into a variable.

So then i hope to test that variable with if -gt but it doesn't work, maybe because its the wrong data type not sure really. Here is the code I'm playing with

Code:

ls -l asl.log| awk '{printf "%s",$5}'
max=300
if [ $5 -gt $max ]; then echo "wohoo";
else echo "grr";
fi

I have checked the result of

Code:

ls -l asl.log| awk '{printf "%s",$5}'

It is greater than 300. But when i run this script the condtion is returning false and i get an error here is the output when running the script

Quote:

93452560
test.sh: line 5: [: -gt: unary operator expected
grr
WebServer:/home/scripts timgolding$

I hope someone can help before i loose my hair

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