Shell Programming and Scripting

I'm not sure either... is that all of your code that you have posted in #10, or is there more in the script? Are the filenames exactly as you have posted (i.e. file1 file2 file2?

yes, that's the exact code, nothing more. I even tried changing the quotes from ' to `. Same error. And all the files are right in the same directory...

What shell are you in? And how exactly are you executing this script?

Try adding a shebang line as the first line of the script to enforce ksh (using the correct path to ksh on your system of course):

Code:

#!/usr/bin/ksh

I typed 'echo $SHELL' and it returned:

/bin/bash

I tried using the shebang line but it didn't work. it stated:
-bash: ./loop.sh: /usr/bin/ksh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

I created a new sh script with this

Code:

echo "Hi there.";

and after I chmod to 755 and typed ./file.sh it worked with no error. this is telling me that there's a format issue with the original one, but I can't find it....

Ah-ha!

The ^M holds the key... you must be creating these scripts under Windows and uploading them to Unix, right? Windows and Unix use different text file formats. Windows ends lines with Carriage Return and Line Feed characters (CR/LF), whereas Unix just uses a Line Feed (LF). You need to convert the script file(s) to Unix format using dos2unix windowsfile > unixfile or tr -d '\r' < windowsfile > unixfile.

You may find life simpler if you learn how to use a Unix editor and edit them directly on the system where you are running them.

oh that makes sense! i learned my lesson! emacs is now my new friend

I once saw emacs at the other side of a crowded directory and thought it looked pretty slick, but then vi sidled up to me and... the rest is history.