Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi
Im new to BASH scripting, I have created a simple script

Code:

#! /bin/sh
LOCAL=/home/scanner

NOW=$(date +"%b-%d-%y")

LOGFILE="log-$NOW.log"

cd $LOCAL

echo 'Start';

echo $LOGFILE
touch $LOGFILE

this creates a log file with the date as part of the name, how
can i place output of the script into this file ?
for example i need to have a simple mail script which i have done seperately

Code:

#! /bin/sh



LOCAL=/root/em_files


cd $LOCAL

for f in *.tif

do 
	if [ $f = "*" ]; then
		break #because of no files
	
	else 
	mutt -s "[$f]" -a $f e_address@yahoo.com < mail_body.txt
	rm -f $f
	fi
done

I need to be able to output to the log file if mail was successfully sent,
or an echo message if i add one ?

You can leave out the touch command if you wish, just add either > $LOGFILE or >> $LOGFILE to the end of any command you want to record STDOUT from. ( in sh, 2> grabs STDERR)

>> creates the file if it doesn't exist and appends to it if it does
> creates the file if it doesn't exist and overwrites it if it does

I use a base set of code for background jobs:

Code:

# Send all output to a logfile and supress input
typeset LOG="/tmp/${0##*/}.out"
mv $LOG ${LOG}.old >/dev/null 2>&1
[[ -t 1 ]] && echo "Writing to logfile '$LOG'."
exec > $LOG 2>&1
exec < /dev/null 2<&1

Note that the shell expression "${0##*/}" is the same as "basename $0". Also, the "[[ -t ]]" should return TRUE when the process is attached to a terminal. In this case, it just prints a message about the logfile (instead of having the user wonder if the script is even running).

I also close stdin since an unattended script should never need input. For instance, if you have "grep $FILENAME" or "cat $FILENAME" and a bug has left $FILENAME unset, then the script would normally hang waiting for input from stdin. If that input is already /dev/null then the script can continue.

Once you have run "exec" to redirect the output, you can't send messages to the terminal anymore unless you use "echo > /dev/tty".

I don't think this is exactly what you were looking for but I think you'll find it helpful.