UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Ok, I can't seem to figure this out or find anything on the web about this.

I'm on Sun Solaris, UNIX.

I have the following test script:

Code:

#!/bin/ksh

touch test.file

LOG=./tmp.log
rm -f ${LOG}

PIPE=./tmp.pipe
mkfifo ${PIPE}
trap "rm -f ${PIPE}" EXIT

tee -a ${LOG} < ${PIPE} &

echo "Hello world"  >${PIPE}  2>&1

ls -ltr test.file

echo "Goodbye world"  >${PIPE}  2>&1

which hangs on the final echo command when I run it.
Interestingly, if I comment out the ls, or either echo command, it works fine.


So I'm trying to understand what's happening here. Hoping somebody could explain?

What I'm trying to do:
- capture stdout and stderr into a log file. [edit] correction: want to capture stdout and sterr to both display and log file[/edit]
- need to capture the return code of the command as well (ie $?) (hence why I'm mucking around with PIPE's so I can displace the tee command).

It seems to work sometimes, and then hang on other occasions, and I haven't found a pattern to it yet.
Hoping anyone can shed light on this - or provide a suitable work around.

Thanks!

[edit]
more specific version info:
Sun4u sparc SUNW
SPARC-Enterprise SunOS
5.10

uname -v
returns:
Generic_147440-02

[/edit]

[edit]
Seems as soon as I do an ls, cp, mv or other disk access, it hangs on the next command?
[/edit]