UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello All,
I am trying to understand line by line in the existing shell script, could you please help me out understanding the code.

1) i was trying execute the below code replacing the parameter with the real file value, but its throwing me an error.

Code:

`echo $line | cut -d "," -f4`

Translated shell command of above cut statement in shell script

Code:

GOPSmasterfile.csv | cut -d "," -f4

2) Could you please let me know what would the output or how exactly the commands work concatenated with "|" symbol or how the output or control transfers from commands in a single statement, i was referring to statements 3 & 5.

Below is the original code

Code:

while read  line
do
x=`echo $line | cut -d "," -f4`
cd $x
plant=`echo $line | grep $x  | cut -d "," -f1 | head -1 `
done < $master_file

Appreciate your time and help, Thank you!

Regards,
Sam.

Code:

1. while read  line
2. do
3. x=`echo $line | cut -d "," -f4`
4. cd $x
5. plant=`echo $line | grep $x  | cut -d "," -f1 | head -1 `
6. done < $master_file

the 3rd line does the following:
echo $line -> Display the line
The displayed line is passed to a PIPE "|". This pipe streams the bytes from the echo command to the cut command.
Hence, the cut command cuts the 4th Field seperated by a delimter ','.
This is equivalent to:
Say your Line is "Name,Age,City,Country,Pincode"
Hence,
echo $line | cut -d "," -f4
=> echo "Name,Age,City,Country,Pincode" | cut -d "," -f4
=> Country
As Country is the 4th Field separated by a comma.

Similarly, the 5th Line:
plant=`echo $line | grep $x | cut -d "," -f1 | head -1
Here we are executing 4 commands using 3 pipes...the output of the left command being passed onto the right as an input.

echo $line (Display a line) -> grep $x (Find a character in this line) -> cut -d "," -f1 (Cut the 1st field from this line seperated by a comma) -> Give the First line from this output.

Please note that as per your script $x = the output of inital command which I am assuming is a directory name.

Hope this helps.