ok....
I've been reading here and also doing a lot of research

As jlliagre says,

if I use the command:

Code:

"vmstat 1 2 | cut -b77-78 | grep -v id"

I get the following output:

Code:

85
99

now "85" is based on the period "since the device was booted"
so "99" is what I want

So how to I only grab the second value?

I tried a test like this:

Code:

   set data=`vmstat 1 2 | cut -b77-78 | grep -v id`
   echo $data

But that only hung at the prompt until the process ran, and gave me no data.

Thanks for your continuing help.

Marc

---------- Post updated at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:50 PM ----------

Actually, It continued to get stuck so I put a command after the top to determine if top was running and kill it.

That failed to resolve the issue to the sys admin's satisfaction.

---------- Post updated at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:52 PM ----------

Actually, It continued to get stuck so I put a command after the top to determine if top was running and kill it.

That failed to resolve the issue to the sys admin's satisfaction.

---------- Post updated at 03:53 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:52 PM ----------

additionally...

When I run the following from the command line:
I get:

Code:

bash-3.2# vmstat 1 2 | grep -v id | cut -b77-78

85
98
bash-3.2#

Note, the blank line is part of the output

but when I create a script: "test.sh" containing:

Code:

bash-3.2# cat test.sh
/usr/bin/ksh

vmstat 1 2 | grep -v id | cut -b77-78

and I run that, I get:

Code:

bash-3.2# ./test.sh
#

I then have to type "exit" to allow the script to complete execution as follows:

Code:

bash-3.2# ./test.sh
# exit

85
98
bash-3.2#

So the more I am trying the more I am both learning and digging my wheels in deeper.

I'm hoping someone can help me out.

Marc