Shell Programming and Scripting

This is still VERY confusing. If we look at message #19 in this thread as the current specification of what you are trying to do, we still can't tell what the parameter is in your parameterized directory nor how that parameter is set (both of which are needed to complete your project). What is the name of the parameter being used in your script that contains the text that is to replace the directory value in Output file directory attribute values? How are you setting that parameter in your shell?

What operating system are you using? Windows uses \ as the component separator in a pathname. UNIX and UNIX-like systems use / as the component separator in a pathname. As noted above:
What shell are you using? To complete your project, quoting and escaping are very important, and quoting and escaping vary greatly between UNIX and UNIX-like system shells and Windows shells.

The sample input file in post #19 contains 22 lines. The sample output file there consists of 44 lines (22 in CODE tags and 22 not in CODE tags). Please clarify what the real output is supposed to be! (I thought maybe the desired output was duplicated, but that is not the case in post #19.) Please be certain that the slash and backslash characters in your post are correct!

Thanks for looking into this .
I am working on a solaris OS. I do know that the slash in my file are used interchangeably , but they are not mistakes , as I have found them in couple of files existing on my system .
As far as the parameterization of directory is concerned, the parameter is a process variable and will not be set in scripts individually, and I am trying to achieve all this using a k shell script.
I hope that answers your questions, please let me know incase additional info is needed.

thanks again.

No. On Solaris systems, the slash character (/) separates components in a pathname and the backslash character (\) is used to escape any special meaning of the following character to the shell, as an escape character in a string in a C program when your filename is encoded as a string in your program, or as an actual character in a filename. From what you have shown us we have no way to determine what you are trying to do.

If you believe that slash and backslash are interchangeable in a shell script, in a pathname, or in a string constant in programming languages like C, C++, and Java; you are severely mistaken. Finding a backslashes and slashes in various files on a Solaris system does not mean that they are interchangeable.

If you're unwilling to show us how a parameter is set and what its name is, there is no way we can tell you how to use that parameter in a sed script.