Problem using grep


 
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# 1  
Old 01-09-2008
Question Problem using grep

Am trying to search a pattern in a file.
When am firing the following command directly on the prompt, its working fine and is fetching me the desired results:
grep CALL file1

But, when am trying to do the same in a script, its going into an infinite loop. Am using the following statement in script
grep CALL $file
file is a variable which contains the full path including the name of the file. For eg: /dir/log/file1


Can anyone tell me why is this happening? Could this be due to using CALL statement in a script...

Last edited by Prem1201; 01-09-2008 at 07:34 AM..
# 2  
Old 01-09-2008
how do you tell that it's looping infinitely.
maybe it's just expecting input because $file is NULL ??
# 3  
Old 01-09-2008
No, the file is not empty. Before this grep statement, I have placed a echo statement to display the contents in the variable, its displaying the correct data.

By infinite loop, I meant that the whole thing is gettign hanged and even after waiting for a long time, am not getting any output...

Last edited by Prem1201; 01-09-2008 at 07:49 AM..
# 4  
Old 01-09-2008
Hmmm, are you SURE That "$file" isn't null? You should post your code.

If in doubt, you can ensure grep will fail (rather than hang) by quoting the $file variable:

Code:
# unset file
# grep PATTERN "$file"
grep: can't open

You should also run your script with "set -x" so you can see where it hangs.
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