Would anyone have details of pre-existing Unix shell scripting standards. I've been asked to prepare a document outlining standards when writing korn shell scripts & don't really know where to start. Thanks.

Below are a couple of rules to get you started. Good luck with it...

All scripts will begin with #!/bin/ksh to ensure we get ksh results however script is invoked.

All scripts requiring input parameters will contain code to ensure the user has entered an appropriate number of parameters, else the script will display a proper syntax message explaining correct use of the command.

All scripts which create temporary files will create these files in the /tmp directory with the process id as part of the data set name (i.e. /tmp/$$.somename), and will employ the trap command to cleanup all /tmp files on completion, example here:

trap "rm -f /tmp/$$.* 2>/dev/null; exit 2" 1 2 3 9 15
trap "rm -f /tmp/$$.* 2>/dev/null; exit 0" 0

All scripts requiring SAS code to be generated, will use the << functionality to generate the required SAS code dynamically into a /tmp data set.

It will probably work if /bin/ksh is a link to zsh. This is common on a lot of our Linux boxes here.

What CFA J & I are telling you is that the best practice is to use the magic at the top of your script. But you do not have guarantees what shell you will invoke, especially when the code is ported. So, on the internet, that becomes very true - like porting into a black hole. So, #!/bin/ksh may not mean what you think.

Consider reading the link in the above post if you're confused about standards.

Thanks a million 66IISW & cfajohnson for your replies, I will try & use the information you've sent on.