UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hi .

I am new to scripting.I am trying to mail the recent file contents but not the below script which i wrote is not working.Please guide me in finishing the script

Code:

File='find /Directory path/*.fnr | tail -1'
content=' cat $File'
echo $content | mail -s "Subject " "myname@company.com"

Thanks,
Karthik

To get the output of a command in a variable, you need to use backquotes instead of quotes.

Code:

var=`some_command`

but it is better to use this:

Code:

var=$(some_command)

Also it is best to quote variable expansions:

Code:

cat "$FILE"

Code:

echo "$content"

In addition to what Scrutinizer has already said, the command:

Code:

File=$(find /Directory path/*.fnr | tail -1)

is very strange. Unless the pathname matching pattern path/*.fnr fails to match any pathnames, the search of the file hierarchy rooted in /Directory doesn't do anything but slow down finding the last file in the file hierarchies rooted in the pathnames matched by path/*.fnr. Note also that unless the pathnames matched by path/*.fnr are non-directory files, the last pathname printed by find from this command will be random (i.e., not necessarily in alphanumeric order, not time created order; just random). What is the intent in picking a random file from the output of find?

And, once you have selected a file, copying the contents of file into a variable with the sole purpose of copying the text into a mail message wastes memory, time, CPU bandwidth, and I/O bandwidth. It would be MUCH more efficient to replace:

Code:

content=$(cat "$File")
echo "$content" | mail -s "Subject " "myname@company.com"

with:

Code:

mail -s "Subject " "myname@company.com" < "$File"

Hi,

I have changed the code as you mentioned but the cat command is not executing content=$(cat "$File") getting below error.

Code:

cat: invalid option -- 'r'
Try `cat --help' for more information.

Thanks.
Karthik

Moderator's Comments:

Please use CODE tags as required by forum rules!

Hi,

I just want to cat the contents of the file *.fnr and mail the content in mail.

My requirement :

Find the file name in today date.

cat the log file and to send the log in mail.

It is log file which show the backup status of database.

Thanks,
Karthik

If you can't find out yourself what the error msg means, and if you want meaningful help, wouldn't it be wise to answer questions needed to track down the details of your problem?