Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,
I need to edit a shell script which is calling another shell script. At the moment the program returns to the command prompt after executing each called script. I need to change it to make it return to the calling script so that the user is able to make another choice to execute the next option without coming out of the program and going back in each time.

For example the calling shell script LoadMarkID.sh is something like:

while called script load_id.sh is something like:

At this point, I would like the program to return to LoadMarkID.sh so that the user has a choice of selecting the next option without first exiting the program and then coming back in.

I would appreciate some help in achieving this please.

thank you.
PTL

remove the exit 0 line in the called script and wrap LoadMarkID.sh as follows

Code:

while 1 ; do
  clear
  echo "Enter  L(Load id)   M(Mark id) :\c"
   read answer
   case $answer in
                       L) exec load_id.sh ;;
                       M) exec mark_id.sh ;;
                        *) invalid
  esac
done

Because you are using 'exec', your original program ceases to exist and is replaced by this new one whenever you do so. It cannot return because there's nothing to return to.

If you don't want it to do that, remove the 'exec' keyword and it will run it externally and wait for it to quit.

wow!! You guys are great! thank you for both suggestions, I will try both and let you know how it goes.

thanks again.
PTL

hi,
Are there any more suggestions to the problem I logged please? I have tried both the suggestions above but neither was successful. The programming still does not return to the calling script.

thank you
PTL

Show your entire program, please, as well as the modifications you tried.

Does your calling script do anything after the script call?

What happens (as far as we can tell) is:
Main script calls script 2

Script 2

preforms action

exit 0 (success)

Main script can get return status (exit 0) of the called script
Main script either performs other tasks below your task selection code (if there are any) or exits.

You can use the exit status of the called script to take additional actions in the calling script.

Shell scripting tends to be pretty linear in that when one command completes, the next will start. Running another script, from the perspective of your main script is just like any other command.
The task selection code you provided only allows for one task selection, then it is done.

If your intention is to remain in the main script's task selection code, then you need to write a loop around the task selection code and add an exit item to your task selection code.

As stated by Corona688, removing the exec leaves your main script running, and the command to run a second script returns as expected. What happens then is up to the code in the main script.