UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

i need to find out following ways to show out put in a shell script when the user selects that option in a case statement. I have the case statement already started just need to find out how to read the following:

current date and time (should it be read date)?
users logged in (should it be read who -q)
name of working directory
contents of working directory

if anyone could help that would be great

Hi,

how do you want to write unix scripts without knowing at least the most basic unix commands?

I would recommend that you have a look here and read the manpages of these basic commands.

Kind regards
zxmaus

If I understand what you are asking, I think the question you want to ask is "How do I assign the output of a command to a shell variable?" The answer to that question is to use the back-quotes around the command and assign it to a variable. For example

Code:

MYDATE=`date`   # puts the output of the date command into variable MYDAY
LOCATION=`pwd` # puts complete path to current directory in LOCATION
USERSONLINE = `wc | who)  - (number of header lines from who)  # count of users

The list of a directory can be acted upon using some like:

Code:

For i in `ls` ; do
{
   ... bunch of code...
}
done

Your syntax will very depending on what shell you are using.

Hopes this gives you some direction on what to look at...

jp

exactly:

Code:

USERSONLINE=`who | wc -l`

and

Code:

for i in /path/to/directory/*
..

yeah what daPeach said.. Thanks for the cleanup