Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi I have a problem trying to run a while statement.

I have files under one directory that i need to compare to a value in filex and update that file with the result

files in the directory are

DFC1.
DFC5.
DFC345.
DFC344.
DFC9.

The program i am trying to run will take the number form the filename
and compare it to the value in filex

it should run through each value in the directory compare it to the value in filex and if greater then replace the value in filex and remove the filename from the directory

i.e. compare DFC1. the value 1 to the value in filex = 0
it is greater so replace value in filex with 1 delete DFC1. and do next filename DFC5. same for DFC345. and DFC344 (but this one should fail)

any ideas

trying this #! /usr/bin/ksh

cd /swm/test/apps/creditors/temp
pwd

var1=$(ls -t DFC*.)
echo $var1
#while read var1
#do
echo cat $var1
var2=$(echo $var1|cut -d. -f1|cut -c5-)
echo $var2 > /swm/test/apps/creditors/temp/valuex
if
[$var2 -ge var3=$(cat valuex)]
then
rm $var1
else
echo "the current value is greater than the file $var1

thanks for any help

Helo.
If I've understood you, this would fit your needs:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Initial value used to compare.
val=0
echo "initial val=$val"
echo "-----------"

# For each file whose name starts with "DFC" and is under files/ folder do
for f in $(ls -1 files/DFC*); do
   echo "File: $f"
   # get the number from the filename
   num=$(echo $(basename $f) | cut -d. -f1|cut -c4-)
   echo "num: $num"
   # Compare it to val value
   if [ $num -gt $val ]; then
      # It's greater, so update val value and delete file.
      val=$num
      rm $f
      echo "${f} deleted."
   fi
   echo "val=$val"
   echo "--"
done

echo "-----------"
echo "###########"
echo "-----------"
echo "val=$val"

For bash, but most probably will work under ksh.

The script assumes your files are stored in ./files

Regards.

Cheers grial almost there only problem keeps reverting to $val to 0

I need to keep a record of the last value and use this the next time the process is ran

You could store it in a file:

Code:

# Initial value used to compare.
val=$(cat /path/to/file.txt)

/path/to/file.txt
should contain only one line with the number and must exist in the first run in this case.
Finally:

Code:

echo "-----------"
echo "###########"
echo "-----------"
echo "val=$val"
echo $val > /path/to/file

So that you update the file with the new value.