I am not sure if i understand you correctly: you want to wait for a file that has a (literal) wildcard character in its name instead of having that wildcard character expanded?

You can easily get this by enclosing the variable into double quotes:

Code:

# ls
filea fileb filec
# file="*"
# echo "$file"
*
# echo $file
filea fileb filec

It is the same in your loop:

Code:

while [ ! -f "${actualfile}" ]; do

but the problem already comes from a previous line, where you use your variable unprotected (unquoted):

Code:

actualfile=${path}${triggerfile}

You should generally protect your variables and only use them without quotes in the few cases where you need them to be interpreted:

Code:

actualfile="${path}${triggerfile}"

But there are other problems with your code you probably are not aware of. Here is your code after a bit of straightening (you should not name a variable "path", btw., it is too easy to be confused with the system variable PATH):

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

triggerpath="/home/user"
triggerfile="${triggerpath}/Trigger*.done"
counter=0
max_counter=12

while [ ! -f "$triggerfile" ] ; do
     (( counter += 1 ))
     if [ $counter -ge $max_counter ] ; then
          echo "email reached max counter"
     else
          sleep 5
     fi
done

1. You have no "sleep" command when in the TRUE-branch of the "if". Instead of testing every 5 seconds as before it tests as often as it can once "$counter" reaches "$max_counter". You may want to move the "sleep"-command outside the if:

Code:

while [ ! -f "$triggerfile" ] ; do
     (( counter += 1 ))
     if [ $counter -ge $max_counter ] ; then
          echo "email reached max counter"
     fi
     sleep 5
done

2. This is a remote chance, but you increment the counter continually. Since you have no "sleep" between tests once "$counter" reaches threshold you might eventually increment over the size of shell numerics, which are integers.

Code:

while [ ! -f "$triggerfile" ] ; do
     if [ $counter -eq $max_counter ] ; then
          echo "email reached max counter"
     else
          (( counter += 1 ))
     fi
     sleep 5
done

I hope this helps.

bakunin