I suppose the ls, doesn't have to be in there, it's just how I've come to set up variables... x=`yadda` (I didn't mean to leave the () around the variable, that was a remnant from a syntax test).

That last pipe on the egrep is a typo, left from when I had thought that all four dumps were in the same directory.

I'm not sure I follow all of what you did there, but I'll go through the parts I think I get and you can tell me where I'm wrong (if you don't mind)

Code:

for x `ls -ltr /dvs/dncs/tmp/corefiles/|awk '/qamManager|dsm|drm|what/{print $9}';
    ls -ltr /dvs/dncs|awk '/core/{print $9}'`

x is any element of the array that is created from everything that follows, which is ls -ltr /mydir...then using awk instead of egrep to isolate the things I was looking for and printing the 9th column same as before

Code:

do
  echo There has been a core dump for the following process:
  dir=/dvs/dncs/tmp/corefiles
  case $x in core) do dir=/dvs/dncs;; esac
  ls -lrt $dir/$x
done

I think what you're saying is
-echo yadda...
-set a variable called dir which is simply the name of the path...
*I don't know case yet, but from what I gather looking at your usage, I assume it means something along the lines of:
-in the event that any of the elements of the array are in core than set dir to /myotherpath
-ls -ltr the path/name of the element

Am I following the commands more or less correctly?

Now if you do it like this, what happens if there is a dump in lets say, qamManager and core? won't the way that the dir variable is changed dependent on the location of x throw off the final output?

Oh, and just as an overall comment, I really appreciate the way that you answered this. You mostly stuck with the same method I was trying to use, just tweaked it so that it...you know...works. I've noticed many people on this board throw out all kinds of awesome exotic answers that while yeah they do what you're trying to get done, don't exactly facilitate learning. (I'm not sure if that made sense...but I've been awake for ~40 hours)