UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Correct. The first line states the command processor, because under Unix there tend to be several. Korn shell, Bourne shell, bash, C shell, ...

Understood, but how are you going to test if your script does the same on your box as the Unix script does on the Unix box? My envy because of your job is quite limited, so to say. ;-)

In the top box of this forums page is a menu point "Man Pages" where you can read the man pages even if you do not have a system of your own.

I'd suggest getting you a Linux-"Live-CD" (you can download one freely from the internet), put that on a USB-stick and boot some spare PC with that, which will give you a working Linux environment without installing anything. Unix and Linux is not the same but so close that you can use it interchangeably for your purpose. Linux uses "bash" instead of Korn shell per default, but you can isntall a ksh even persistently if your stick is big enough (bigger than 4G).

If you want access to a more lasting solution I'd suggest installing VirtualBox (VMWare, ....) and install a Linux there. You can boot this virtual machine in a window and play around and/or even access the internet with your system acting as bridge. Beware, though: using Unix is - for most Windows users - rather addictive. :-) It might well be that after some time you isntall Linux andmove Windows to a virtual box, finally to remove Windows altogether.

If anything is unclear when you read the man pages, just search this forum or ask here if you can't find it. We rarely bite newbies.

I hope this helps.

bakunin
I hope this helps.

Thanks a lot bakunin.

This definitely helps

---------- Post updated at 11:13 AM ---------- Previous update was at 02:36 AM ----------

Hi bakunin,

Can you help me in understanding the below 2 lines of code,

Code:

     SUBJECT="$ENV -- Jobs in JE status that need attention"
     COMMENTS=`echo $COMMENTS | sed s/#/\ /g`

In the 1st line what is the meaning of "--" & how it gets club with $ENV.
In the 2nd line what is the meaning of sed s/#/\ /g`.

Thanks again for your time.

In the 2nd line what is the meaning of "sed s/#/\ /g`".

This one is easy: "sed" is a programmable text filter. In this case it replaces every "#" with what follows after "\" (here it looks like a space, but it could be a tab either in the original) in the content of a variable "COMMENTS". The result of this substitution is then fed to the variable "COMMENTS" again. Let me add that it is simply idiotic to do it this way, because "#" is indeed the comment character (like "//" in C++), but sometimes it is used in quoted strings. On the folliwng the script would most probably do something you don't want to have done:

Code:

command1 # this is a comment
echo "but this: # is not"

"ENV" is a variable where the path/filename to a configuration file for the shell is stored. In most cases something like:

Code:

ENV="~/.kshrc"
export ENV

is part of your profile. This means that the login shell, when it starts, should search for a file in your HOME directory ("~") named ".kshrc" and source that in. Usually "~/.kshrc" contains some settings you want your shell to have.

Here, a variable "SUBJECT" is set to contain the content variable "ENV" plus the fixed string " -- Jobs in JE status that need attention" concatenated. "--" has no special meaning here. This too is most probably not doing what it is supposed to do, but guessing what it should do is beyond my abilities.

I hope this helps.

bakunin