I have two do loops. When I break of the inner loop it doesn't go back to the outer loop but exit the program.

Please post your code. Also, post which shell and OS you are using.

Korn shell on a HP but the code will also run on AIX.
The code is very big but here is the piece that is not working

if [ "${ALERT}" ]
then
set -x
desc="performing maintenance on the Oracle alerts logs."
echo "\n${desc}\n" >> ${logfile}

export dblist=$(grep -v "#" ${oratab} | awk -F: '{print $1}')
echo "${dblist}" | while read db
do
while true
do
export sid=${db}
alertlog="alert_${sid}.log"
echo "\nprocessing ${alertlog}." >> ${logfile}
orauser=${admin}/${sid}/.orauser_${sid}
if test ! -r "${orauser}"
then
errmsg=${main}.${today}.msg
echo "unable to read ${orauser}" > ${errmsg}
send_message ${maillist} ${errmsg}
echo "\nunable to read ${orauser}." >> ${logfile}
break
fi
. ${admin}/${sid}/.orauser_${sid}
echo "\nsql query for background_dump_desc from ${sid}." >> ${logfile}
sqlcmd=${workdir}/${main}.alertlog.${today}.sql
sqllog=${workdir}/${main}.alertlog.${today}.log
rm -f ${sqlcmd} ${sqllog}
echo "set termout off" > ${sqlcmd}
echo "set pagesize 0" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "set linesize 1024" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "set trimspool on" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "set heading off" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "set feedback off" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "set verify off" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "whenever sqlerror warning" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "spool ${sqllog}" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "select value from v\$parameter" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo " where name = 'background_dump_dest';" >> ${sqlcmd}
echo "exit" >> ${sqlcmd}
systempwd=$(get_pwd ${node} ${sid} system)
(sqlplus -S system/${systempwd} @${sqlcmd}) >> ${logfile}
if [ "${status}" -ne 0 ]
then
errmsg=${main}.${today}.msg
echo "error ${status} retriving background_dump_dest \c" >> ${logfile}
echo "from ${sid}." > ${errmsg}
send_message ${maillist} ${errmsg}
echo "error ${status} retriving background_dump_dest \c" >> ${logfile}
echo "from ${sid}." >> ${logfile}
break
fi
bdump=$(cat ${sqllog})
echo "\nsqlplus query successful. bdump = ${bdump}\n" >> ${logfile}
rm -f ${sqlcmd} ${sqllog}
timestamp=$(gettimestamp)
archive="${alertlog}.${timestamp}"
cp -fp ${bdump}/${alertlog} ${bdump}/${archive}
echo "\narchiving ${alertlog} to TSM." >> ${logfile}
archive_file ${bdump} ${archive} ${mca}
status=$?
if [ "${status}" -ne 0 ]
then
errmsg=${main}.${today}.msg
echo "error ${status} archiving ${archive} to TSM." > ${errmsg}
send_message ${maillist} ${errmsg}
echo "error ${status} archiving ${archive} to TSM." >> ${logfile}
echo "restoring ${alertlog} to original state." >> ${logfile}
tmpfile=${workdir}/${main}.tmp

cmd="cat ${bdump}/${archive} ${bdump}/${alertlog} > ${tmpfile}; "
cmd="${cmd} mv -f ${tmpfile} ${bdump}/${alertlog}; "
cmd="rm -f ${bdump}/${archive} ${tmpfile}"
(${cmd})
break
fi
rm -f ${bdump}/${archive}
echo "\ntruncating file ${bdump}/${alertlog}" >> ${logfile}
truncate_file ${bdump}/${alertlog}
status=$?
if [ "${status}" -ne 0 ]
then
errmsg=${main}.${today}.msg
echo "error ${status} truncating ${bdump}\c" > ${errmsg}
echo "/${alertlog}." >> ${errmsg}
send_message ${maillist} ${errmsg}
echo "error ${status} truncating ${bdump}/\c" >> ${logfile}
echo "${alertlog}." >> ${logfile}
continue
fi
echo "\nfile truncated successfully.\n" >> ${logfile}
break
done
done
fi

I would like to see printing dblist after the following line
to see what it is printing and whether dblist is just a single line.

export dblist=$(grep -v "#" ${oratab} | awk -F: '{print $1}')


Also print some log between those 2 'done' statements and see whether it is printed or not.



done
done

export dblist=$(awk -F: '/^[^#].*/ {print $1}' ${oratab})

Thank you for all your help I change the command line and work fine. I don't now how this work but if you can explain to me why this command works and not the original one will be helpfull. Thank you again