Hi Gurus
I am trying the same type of command through a shell script but it is not working.

$ cat testing.cfg
owner||1
object||1
command_type||1
CREATED_DATE||2
CREATED_BY||2
LAST_UPDATED_DATE||2
LAST_UPDATED_BY||2

$ cat extractedmessage.out
object: RXP_PATIENT
is tag null: Y
command_type: UPDATE
old(2): CREATED_DATE
20-JAN-99
old(3): CREATED_BY
RXP_DM_P001
old(4): LAST_UPDATED_DATE
06-APR-08
old(5): LAST_UPDATED_BY
RXP_DM_P012

p=$\p
cat testing.cfg|while read extractdata
do
whattext=`echo $extractdata|awk -F"||" {'print $1'}`
howmanylines=`echo $extractdata|awk -F"||" {'print $2'}`
echo "sed -n '/${whattext}/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -${howmanylines}|tail -1"
`sed -n '/${whattext}/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -${howmanylines}|tail -1` >isitworking.out 2>&1
outputis1=`date`
echo ${outputis1}
done
done

The above script is not working if i put it in a script
cat testing.ksh
p=$\p
cat testing.cfg|while read extractdata
do
whattext=`echo $extractdata|awk -F"||" {'print $1'}`
howmanylines=`echo $extractdata|awk -F"||" {'print $2'}`
echo "sed -n '/${whattext}/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -${howmanylines}|tail -1"
output1is=`sed -n '/${whattext}/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -${howmanylines}|tail -1`
echo ${output1is}
done


$ ksh -x testing.ksh
+ p=$p
+ cat testing.cfg
+ read extractdata
+ + echo LAST_UPDATED_DATE||2
+ awk -F|| {print $1}
whattext=LAST_UPDATED_DATE
+ + echo LAST_UPDATED_DATE||2
+ awk -F|| {print $2}
howmanylines=2
+ echo sed -n '/LAST_UPDATED_DATE/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -2|tail -1
sed -n '/LAST_UPDATED_DATE/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -2|tail -1
+ + sed -n /${whattext}/,$p extractedmessage.out
+ head -2
+ tail -1
output1is=
+ echo

but if i cut and paste outout of the sed and run it manuall it works fine
$ sed -n '/LAST_UPDATED_DATE/,$p' extractedmessage.out|head -2|tail -1
06-APR-08


Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
arun