Hi guys,
what is the easiest way in ksh to parse a file? For example I want to find out a value of MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH from /etc/default/security and I want to make sure it has a certain value. Of course I need to make sure the line is commented out, or if the are more lines with MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH that at least one of them is commented out ...

thanks,
Kubko

Pardon my ignorance, but what kind of system are you using? How is the /etc/default/security file structured? Let's suppose it's just a whitespace-separated table, such as:

Then something like this might do the trick:

Alter values, messages, and possibly the awk field separator, as needed. Rinse and repeat. It might be that more information is needed to make this match the security file; just post any relevant information and I'm sure we can put something together.

Sorry Will, it's for HP-UX so the format is
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH=8
how will the awk command change?
What about if there are more lines with the same name like MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH?

Thank you,
K

In that case, all that changes is the field separator in awk. So, this:

becomes:

Now, I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that any additional lines called "MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH" would be commented out. For example:

The grep that I used accounts for that. The ^ character in the grep tells it to return those lines that start with MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH. So, the first line of the 4 above would be returned; the other 3 would be entirely ignored. Does that do what you need, or would there be more than 1 uncommented line starting with MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH? Post to let us know if that's the case-- I'm sure we can put something together that works.

Will, there might be more than 1 uncommented line starting with MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH.
Other than that it looks great! Thank you so much!

K.

No problem. I glad it worked out. BTW, my name is Andrew, not Will. My "Danger, Will Robinson" reference was to the old "Lost In Space" television series. I guess I need to pick somewhat less obscure references.

sorry Andrew! :-)
What about if I have more references to MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH in the file?
like
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH=4
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH=7
..
MIN_PASSWORD_LENGTH=x
?
How could I handle this?
Thanks again
K.