UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Moderator's Comments:

Moderational Interlude Yes. What are we, in your opinion, to do about that? Notice, that this is a place intended to help each other in case of exceptionally tricky problems. What constitutes "each other" and "exceptionally tricky" respectively is very loosely defined and most of us help gladly. Still, there is a fine line between the "help me helping myself"-attitude and the "do my work for me"-attitude. The former - even combined with the occasional thick-wittedness, which befalls all of us - is ok, while the latter is absolutely not. So, PLEASE(!), change your attitude, then change your script - in this order!

Code:

check_interval=120 # check every 5 minutes
(( check_interval_minutes=${check_interval}/60 ))

tried debugging the scrpt using ksh -vx

First off, 120/60 is not 5 (minutes), but 2, so your code is faulty even in concept.

Second, define variables prior to using them. Even if this is not always necessary it is good style to create first what you want to use later instead of just mentioning it and hoping for the best.

Third, the "((...))" device is already telling the shell you are doing arithmetic operations and therefore variables inside do not have to be adressed as "$var" but "var" instead.

Code:

typeset -i check_interval_seconds=0   # define as integer value
typeset -i check_interval_minutes=0

...

check_interval_seconds=120
(( check_interval_minutes = check_interval_seconds / 60 ))

I hope this helps.

bakunin