Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi Gurus,

I wrote a small KSH script, in that i am comparing two variables like this

curr_time = date +%h.%m
set_time=23.55

If [[$curr_time -ge $set_time]];
then
zip the file

fi

The above script is croned to run evey 5(3,8,.......,58) minutes, but it is zipping at 23.03 hours. My intention is at 23.58 .what is wrong here. Please help me

several issues:

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

typeset -i curr_time=$(date +%H%M)
typeset -i set_time=2355

if (( $curr_time >= $set_time ));
then
   echo 'zip the file'
fi

I am in the learning phase... Can't we compare decimals and can't we use -GE instead of >=. Please educate me

ksh [the ksh88 version] doesn't support floating point arithmetics.

Sadly, the shell can't do it. Gladly, though, the shell along with its tools can! You have to think of shell programming as combining your bits and pieces into a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.

That doesn't mean the shell isn't ugly and clumsy. It is. Even moreso than Perl. But it sure is convenient, and reasonably powerful!

Here's one way to do what you want:

curr_time = date +%h.%m
set_time=23.55

result=`echo "if ( $curr_time > $set_time) 1" | bc`

If [[ "$result" = 1 ]];
then
zip the file

fi