Shell Programming and Scripting

param1="some-value-1"
param2="some-value-2"
param3="some-value-3"
param4="some-value-4"
param5="some-value-5"

#! /bin/ksh

# .... set some environment first, whatever is needed here ....

typeset  fParam="/path/to/param.file"
typeset  chLineBuffer=""

typeset  achParm[1]=""
typeset  achParm[2]=""
typeset  achParm[3]=""
typeset  achParm[4]=""
typeset  achParm[5]=""

typeset -i iCnt=0
typeset -i lError=0

# read the file (cat), strip all empty lines and comments (sed) and feed the rest to
# the while-loop. There the "case..esac" decides which parameter it is and
# stores it to the appropriate variable. If the parameter is not known an error
# is issued and the script terminates with errorlevel 1.

cat "$fParam" |\
sed 's/^[<spc><tab>]*$//; s/#.*$//' |\
while read chLineBuffer ; do
     case "${chLineBuffer%%=*}" in
          param1)
               achParm[1]="${chLineBuffer##*=}
               ;;

          param2)
               achParm[2]="${chLineBuffer##*=}
               ;;

          param3)
               achParm[3]="${chLineBuffer##*=}
               ;;

          param4)
               achParm[4]="${chLineBuffer##*=}
               ;;

          param5)
               achParm[5]="${chLineBuffer##*=}
               ;;

          *)
               print - "ERROR: unknown parameter $chLineBuffer"
               exit 1
               ;;
     esac
done

# The following part is only necessary if you need to make sure that all five
# parameters are passed. If it is legal to have one or more ommitted you do
# not need this.

iCnt=1
lError=0
while [ $iCnt -le 5 ] ; do
     if [ -z "${achParm[$iCnt]}" ] ; then
          print - "ERROR: no Value for achParm[$iCnt]"
          lError=1
     fi
done
if [ $lError -gt 0 ] ; then
     exit 2
fi

# Put the part which works with the gotten parameters here, for example:

some-command -a "${achParm[1]}" -b "${achParm[2]}" -c "${achParm[3]}"

exit $?