UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I've got a ksh for loop with wildcards specified, and I want the wildcards to be preserved when inside the loop. Instead, it is expanding the wilcards and identifying filenames in the current directory

Code:

#!/usr/bin/ksh
list="a* b*"
for i in ${list}
do
  echo 'Loop value =' ${i}
done

with these files in the directory

Code:

/home/temp > ls -1 a* b*
a1.txt
a2.txt
b1.txt

I get this output

Code:

Loop value = a1.txt
Loop value = a2.txt
Loop value = b1.txt

How can I stop identifying the files and return the original list values including the *'s, i.e.
Loop value = a*
Loop value = b*

Thanks in advance
N

If you are using bash , You can prevent this filename expansion by turning off globbing set -o noglob.
let me check for ksh and I'll post here again when i put my hands on something.

Bingo.
I thought I'd tried the noglob function without any joy, but that appears to work fine for ksh in this scenario.
Many thanks for your help.
N