Shell Programming and Scripting

thanks google, the link has really helped!

Okay so if I'm following all this correctly..

1 You've got 10 text files which have almost all the same information in each file, except for two lines which contain a path.
2 These two lines with the path names on them are not necessarily on the same line each time you copy a file and edit it, presumably because each of the 10 text files is set up slightly differently..

Maybe a loop..? In ksh:

Code:

cd "your/dir"
echo "Enter the two directories:"
read dirOne
read dirTwo
for FILE in `ls`
do
  foundFirstDir="no"
  while read LINE
  do
    echo $LINE | grep -q "/"
    if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]
    then
      if [[ $foundFirstDir = "no" ]]
        then
        echo $dirOne >> ${FILE}_new
        foundFirstDir="yes"
      else
        echo $dirTwo >> ${FILE}_new
      fi
    else
      echo $LINE >> ${FILE}_new
    fi
  done < $FILE
done

Basically, I'm assuming the only lines in the entire file that will contain a backslash are the two lines that contain the paths on them.. is it safe to make this assumption?

Thanks oombera. I can pretty much guarantee that the directory will always be in the following format:

/u/[variable directory]/pfx/
and
/u/[variable directory]/main/

it is the [variable directory] bit that needs changing all the time.

would the script be more accurate if instead of
echo $LINE | grep -q "/"

I had
echo $LINE | grep -q "/u/"


I'll try it now, both ways and keep you posted

Edit1: I'm not entirely sure what dirOne and dirTwo are..? Source and Target?

./test: [[: not found

I get that error about 20 times in succession...

Try going back into the script and removing one set of brackets.. i.e. where you see [[ something ]], remove a set of brackets so you have [ something ].

Yes, the more characters you can put in the grep command, the more likely you are to find the exact lines you're looking for.

You said you want the user to enter two directories when they run the script. The script stores those two directories in $dirOne and $dirTwo. That way, when the script finds what appears to be directories in the configuration file, it will replace the first one it finds with $dirOne and the second one with $dirTwo.

What shell are you using? (If you don't know, try echo $SHELL and post the results..)

Shell:
# echo $SHELL
/bin/sh

It hasn't worked either
The program ran, it seemed to be doing something for a few moments, then returned to prompt. Checked the files and they are unaltered...

That may be a good sign .. no errors concerning the brackets!

If you look at my script, it isn't designed to overwrite your files.. it's designed to create new files ending with _new. So if your configuration file is named configFile01, then after running my script you should see a configFile01_new in the same directory.. are they there?