well i have this code here..and it works fine in kornshell..

#!/bin/ksh
home=c:/..../
input=$1
sed '1,3d' $input > $1.out

line=""
cat $1.out | while read a
do
line="$line $a"
done

echo $line > $1

rm $1.out

however...now i want it just in normal sh mode..how to convert this? any help? thanks!

could you define what you mean by 'normal' sh, pls?

and if you had run it under your 'normal' sh, what kind of issue you encountered?

oh its bourne shell as in #!/bin/sh

ok, so. when you run it under '/bin/sh' ... what's taking place?

well....its this part i guess...or maybe other part of the lines...as im a newbie..what i think was this line that cause the error....
cat $1.out | while read a
do
line="$line $a"
done

the line will not combine...as in the code here "$line Sa" will not execute

what do you get as the output?

could you post the content of your '$1' file, pls?

ok..my output was something similar to this..
abc

abc

abc

and when i run this ...i will get
abc abc abc...

i can get this in korn shell ..but not in bourne..dun know why,,