UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have 2 shell scripts the primary one would load the other one which will have functions defined in it.


Script 1:

Code:

. /apps/bin/Script 2

function

if [ script2_returnvalue  = 0 ]
then
  continue...
  ....
fi

Script 2:

Code:

function()
{

while read ln
(
  if [ condition1 ]
  then
   ...
   ....
   else
    exit
   fi
)<file1

return 0
}

now my question is in the script 2, i need to have that return 0 statement or else after while loop finishes it is returning non zero value which is causing my script 1 to fail with out continuing. Also if my script invokes exit statement since i also have return statement 0 value after while loop it is causing script 1 to continue with out exiting. could you please tell me how to handle this situation is there any way i make a forceful exit in script 2 when i call the exit with out even control going to the return 0 statement, Thank you.

This seems normal; exit returns the value of the last finished command unless otherwise specified, and without return, so does a function. The solution would be to fix the problems that cause commands inside function() to fail, not to ignore their return value and keep going.

Don't use the exit statement in the function (you can guess why not):

Script 2:

Code:

function()

while read ln
do
  if [ condition1 ]
  then
    ...
    ....
  else
    return 1
  fi

done < file1

return 0

but in the main script:

Script 1:

Code:

. /apps/bin/Script 2

function

if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
  continue...
  ....
else
  exit 1
fi

exit 0

Would it be possible the control doesn't pass to script1 after the while loop finishes as below. If it is possible please let me know how to handle this situation, Thanks a lot.

script1

Code:

. /apps/bin/script2

function

if [ $? = 0]
then
....
else
...
fi

script2

Code:

function ()
{
while read ln
do

done<${file}
}

Using exit after your while-loop would prevent it returning to "script1" - although, you did source script2, so it's actually part of script1 now, anyway.

Code:

function ()
{
while read ln
do

done<${file}
exit
}

Why would you wish to do that?

Which shell, are you using? function is a reserved word in bash and ksh, so I trust that's not the name of your function?

yes you are correct i am not using reserved word function, i just put it as an example. i am using Korn shell, The problem i am facing is once the while loop finishes reading the file for sometime in script2, the control is not passing to the script1 which i don't want to happen, would it be possible? or my analysis is wrong? is any thing wrong in code i pasted?Thank you

There's no reason why (if you're not using exit in the function), after the while-loop (and function) are finished control would not return to "script1".

It might be helpful if you posted the actual code - or a representative example - that doesn't work.