Ok, this is about the script i expected. It has several problems, but first, lets analyze your problem correctly. Software engineering (and script programming is a form of software engineering) is about correctly analyzing the problem before you envision a solution.

Your "find" command compares dates - the date/time the file local.cshrc has been changed to when the file index.html in the users home directory. If a new user is created after the last change of the skeleton file his file ~/index.html will be newer regardless of being changed or not. On the other hand if the skeleton file is changed even the files reported as changed before will be reported as not changed. So you don't find the correct files in first place.

Lets see: when a new user is created s/he is delivered some standard version of index.html. If s/he changes it it will differ from this standard file, if not then not. Now this is indeed a criterion which will pick out the right files, yes?

So, your task is to find a unix utility which compares two files and finds out if they differ or not. If there is such an utility we could write the following program (in pseudocode):

Code:

while (cycle through all users)
     do
     if (~thisusers/index.html is equal  to the standard index.html)
          do nothing
     else
          write a corresponding line to your output file
     endif
enddo

There are two things you can do for now:

1) find a way to get all the users names. (You will need this to set up the while-loop above.) I could tell you, but i don't want to spoil your fun finding it out.

2) find a unix command which compares two files and finds out if they are equal (you will need this for deciding the if-construction).

Report back here with your answers and i will give you the directions for the next stage.

Sorry for dragging this out this way, but i cannot give you enough directions at once without giving away the solution. As the spirit of this board is to help you learn and not spoon-feed you solutions we have to do it this way. As i am convinced you will soon find out Unix is not only a lot of fun to work with but also a lot of fun to learn about, so enjoy it while the learning experience lasts.

bakunin