UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

I have script that runs based on time variables passed in the command line. The first command argument is a timer, in seconds, of how often to execute a certain loop in the script. The second command argument is the end time of the script, in military time. Below is an example of the command line:

Code:

% statreport 0360 1530

When the script is called I retrieve the current time. The problem I have is that I need to calculate the difference between the current time and end time then convert the difference to seconds. Is there any easy way to do this?

Thanks ahead of time.

Break up the end-time into hours and minutes. (60*hours)+minutes gives you minutes past midnight. Use date command to get current hours and minutes and do likewise. Subtract to get difference in minutes. Multiply by 60 to convert to seconds.