Shell Programming and Scripting

i'm not too sure how to use set--$(ls -l filename) to set values of positional parameters.

i'm supposed to write a script that accepts a directory as an optional command line parameter. and for that directory, i'm supposed to display a single line of information about each file within it: file name, file size, file owner (in that order) using set--$(ls -l filename).

this is my solution:
------------- file read_dir.sh ------------------
#!/bin/sh

dirname=$1
for filename in `ls $dirname`
do
if [ -f $dirname/$filename ]
then
set -- $(ls -l $dirname/$filename)
echo -e $9 "\t" $5 "\t" $3
fi
done
exit 0
-------------------------------------------------------

in command line: $ read_dir.sh directory_name

let's try

this is what i have so far, would it be right?

# !/bin/bash
# file-info script - allows user to view information on
# files in a specified directory

dirname=$1

clear

if [ $# -ge 2 ]; then
echo "Too many parameters. Usage: file-info [directory]"
exit
fi

if [ -d $1 ]; then
cd $1
echo "Processing `pwd`: "
for filename in `ls $dirname`
do
if [ -f $dirname/$filename ]; then
set -- $(ls -l $dirname/$filename)
echo -e $9 $5 $3
fi
done
cd
else
echo "$1 is not a valid directory... terminating..."
fi

The construction for filename in `ls` is an abhorrence. If there are file names with spaces or other special characters in them, it won't work right. Just use for filename in "$dirname"/* instead.

In the set, of course, you need the ls because you want the long listing, not just the file name.