Hey guys, I'm currently working on a project for comp sci course, and I'm very green to Unix and scripting, and only have a semesters worth of programming knowledge (bare with me! sorry!). What I'm trying to do is make a 'if ... then ... fi' control structure that takes user input and then searches the file where data is going and if the name already exists in first field it prints error msg (cant have two of same name in data file)

So basically its sort a mock inventory auto parts management script, user goes to add new parts, first is prompted to enter name of part ... I then want to compare user input to first field of all entires already in my data file (auto.parts) ... if the part exists print error message, if not continue and add part to data file.

So far I got:

#bin/sh

echo -n "Please enter auto part name:"
read apname
if [ "$apname" = "$1" ]
then
        echo -n "Part already exists!  Can not enter duplicate parts."
        stop=1
else
        echo -n "Please enter operator's name:"
        read opname
        status="Part Available"
        cdate=""
        bname=""
fi
echo ${apname}:${opname}:${status}:${cdate}:${bname} >> auto.parts
echo "A new auto part has been added to inventory!"