Shell Programming and Scripting

I have 5 log files under different directores . say for eg abc under /home/dir1 , xyz under home/dir2 . is there a script that i can run from say /home that searchers all these files for string or combination of strings and write to a file

eg search file by timestamp|keyword
o/p in a file

try something like this..

Code:

for i in /dir1/ /dir2/ /dir3/
do
grep "search_string" "$i"/file_name >> /path/output_file
done

Hi Thanks for the reply .
I'm facing a new problem .
In the below snippet :

echo "enter search string"
read Searchstring

the searchstring is a date of format Sep 29 00:00:10 . when i'm giving the input it is not considering it as a single field . how do i resolve this

you can directly pass the variable which having spaces.
for precaution purpose use quotes around it..

Code:

$ cat test.sh
echo "enter search string"
read Searchstring
echo "$Searchstring"

$ sh test.sh
enter search string
Sep 29 00:00:10
Sep 29 00:00:10

Here is my script :
#!/bin/ksh
#
# Start of main processing
#
echo "enter String One";
read SearchString1
echo "Enter String two";
read SearchString2
echo $SearchString1
for i in `cat Loginput`;
do
if [ "$SearchString2" == '' ];then
cat $i|grep $SearchString1 >>"Logoutput"
else
cat $i|grep $SearchString1|grep $SearchString2 >>"Logoutput"
fi
done
exit 0

I'm getting the below error :

Code:

Searchstring2 = Sep 29 00:00:10
error :grep: 0652-033 Cannot open 29.
grep: 0652-033 Cannot open 00:00:10

How do i resolve it

You need to quote "$SearchString1" to prevent word splitting when the variable is expanded. Think of it this way: if you typed in "grep Sep 29" it would think you were trying to look for the string "Sep" in the file "29." So when the shell expands $SearchString1, it is as if you had typed in "grep Sep 29" without any quotes. By quoting, you prevent the shell from splitting the argument into two words.

EDIT: There are a number of other problems, or at least inefficiencies in your script, but as a novice scripter myself, I understand that sometimes you just struggle through it to get the job done. Some things to consider:

1) Consider whitespace when writing scripts. Your script with meaningful whitespace:

Code:

#!/bin/ksh
# Start of main processing

echo "enter String One";
read SearchString1
echo "Enter String two";
read SearchString2
echo "$SearchString1"
for i in `cat ~/Desktop/Loginput`;
	do
		if [ "$SearchString2" == '' ]
			then
				cat $i|grep "$SearchString1" >>"Logoutput"
			else
				cat $i|grep "$SearchString1"|grep $SearchString2 >>"Logoutput"
		fi
	done
exit 0

I did move the "then" statement to its own line. While the whitespace means nothing to the shell, it makes it much easier for humans to read because you can see the organizational structure of your script.

2) ";" is not needed at the end of a line. The shell interprets a newline as the end of a command, unless it is quoted, in which case it is taken literally (example below):

Code:

echo "
"

3) It looks like you are testing whether the second search string is blank. An easier way to do this is simply [[ "$SearchString2" ]]. If the string is null, the test will return false, and the if command will execute the "else" portion of the construct.

try now.. just put condition in if..