UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

okay, I'm a complete beginner, and I keep getting stuck on the syntax here. I want to write a script where I read the current time as minutes and seconds, convert the minutes to seconds, and add the two, then redirect the output to a file. the command takes two arguments, which will also be redirected to the file. This is what I have:

echo $1: $2: >> tmk
set min=`date +%M`
set sec=`date +%S`
set total=`($min * 60) + $sec`
echo $total >> tmk

I keep getting a badly placed bracket error on the set total line. Any suggestions?

I want to be able to use the script to input a number of times, then add or subtract them depending on the first two arguments at a later time.

Looks like csh - try @ total = ($min * 60) + $sec